Roaming profiles don't delete files

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Posted by DanielArkley on Jan 4th, 2010 at 5:35 PM

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Hello,

We are running a Windows Server 2003/XP+Active Directory environment (with a few

Windows Server 2008 servers) using Roaming Profiles.

We've found a problem where files aren't being deleted from the server copies of roaming
profiles, which results in files re-appearing after users have deleted them. I believe what
happens is this:

1. User deletes the file on their PC.The file is deleted from the local profile but not the
server copy.
2. User logs off.
3. User logs on again next day.
4. PC pulls the server copy of the profile, which contains the previously deleted file.
5. The deleted file is now back in the local profile.

I'd read previously that this could sometimes happen if Offline folders were enabled on
the profile shares, however I've checked on both servers we use for storing profiles and
neither has Offline folders enabled.

Is there a GPO or some other such configuration change I can make to ensure that deletes
are propagated from local profiles to the sevrer copies?

Thanks in advance!

Daniel

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DeanColomban
anaheim

Nov 18th, 2015 at 7:09 PM

I have tried everything and I found the answer, for us it was Remote App / Remote
Desktop Services causing the issue.

The issue we were experiencing was exactly as described.

I finally found the cause of the issue. We use remote apps and have a RDS Server and
when the user launches the remote app they are logging into the server and the profile
gets copied over, however when the remote app is closed the session just disconnects.
Then the user would log off their local computer and the profile would sync. Shortly after
the RDS server session would log off coping over the profile essentially putting everything
back to the way it was.

I have fixed this by enabling a local GPO on the RDS server that prevents roaming profile
changes from propagating back to their profile when the users session is logged off. This
setting is called “Prevent Roaming Profile changes from propagating to the server” and
can be found under Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates >
System > User Profiles.

I hope this helps.

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5 Replies

pchiodo
habanero

Jan 4th, 2010 at 6:34 PM

Yes, you need to enable Offline files and folders and ensure the sync happens at
logoff. This will transfer any changes in the local profile to the server profile.

You can certainly enable this through a GPO as it is a standard windows feature.

Should be under windows templates for the GPO setting

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Isaac929
New contributor sonora

Jan 4th, 2010 at 8:24 PM

Glad you posted this in Spiceworks!! I have been having the same issue for some
time on our Windows 2003 AD / XP Pro domain. I've been searching for answers
and figured it would be solved by now... no luck. There are posts for this exact issue
all over the Internet, with no solution. Read this post (scroll to the bottom):

http://www.experts-
exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/2003_Server/Q_209242
70.html

There are many great suggesstions including deleting offline files, disabling offline
files, etc. but none of these solve the issue. What is strange is that the roaming
policy is setup exactly how MS suggests it, but not all workplaces are having the
issue. Unfortunately we are; next step is call MS or hopefully someone has a
solution (that had the issue before). If I find out before you do I will definately post,
please do the same.

Regards,

Isaac

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Mark McKinlay
datil

Jan 5th, 2010 at 9:39 AM

pchiodo wrote:

Yes, you need to enable Offline files and folders and ensure the sync happens at
logoff. This will transfer any changes in the local profile to the server profile.

You can certainly enable this through a GPO as it is a standard windows feature.

Should be under windows templates for the GPO setting

No you dont, Offline files has nothing to do with a roaming profile updatating.
What desktop software are you using? If it is XP you could try installing UPHClean
which will help you out a bit. We get this from time to time and to be honest we
usually just delete the server copy and it sorts itself out but that isnt blanket
company wide failures. I know this kind of problem along with other oddities
happen if someone goes from XP to Win 7 using an XP profile. Also look at the
logfiles and see why the profiles aren't being updated, it could be something simple
like the permissions have changed denying them write access.

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Limey
mace

Jan 5th, 2010 at 12:42 PM

pchiodo wrote:

Yes, you need to enable Offline files and folders and ensure the sync happens at
logoff. This will transfer any changes in the local profile to the server profile.

You can certainly enable this through a GPO as it is a standard windows feature.

Should be under windows templates for the GPO setting

Microsoft explicitly state not to enable Offline Folders with Roaming Profiles.
I'd start with UPHClean as Mark suggests.

We have this here with one user, haven't fixed it yet, but did manually delete the
files in her profile and also on the server.

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DeanColomban
anaheim

Nov 18th, 2015 at 7:09 PM checkBest Answer

I have tried everything and I found the answer, for us it was Remote App / Remote
Desktop Services causing the issue.

The issue we were experiencing was exactly as described.

I finally found the cause of the issue. We use remote apps and have a RDS Server
and when the user launches the remote app they are logging into the server and the
profile gets copied over, however when the remote app is closed the session just
disconnects. Then the user would log off their local computer and the profile would
sync. Shortly after the RDS server session would log off coping over the profile
essentially putting everything back to the way it was.

I have fixed this by enabling a local GPO on the RDS server that prevents roaming
profile changes from propagating back to their profile when the users session is
logged off. This setting is called “Prevent Roaming Profile changes from propagating
to the server” and can be found under Computer Configuration > Policies >
Administrative Templates > System > User Profiles.

I hope this helps.

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