Problems with My Documents/Application Data redirection

Hi Everyone,

Help again

There are some users with GPO and account setups so that My Document and
Application Data folder are set to Server1.

Now I just tried to move the users to Server2, which is a new server. I did
those by creating a new GPO so My Documents and App data all will redirect to
the new server. Same as the account settings so all users have pointed to
their own folders. Then I also move their folders to the new servers. And
deleted the old ones in the old server.

Now, most parts are right! People have pointed to the right folders,
including My Documents and Application Data folder. However, I found out
that... some people's application data folders were still re-generated on the
old server. One person's My Documents folder is regenerated. But all his
contents are still at the new server. Only some of the contents such as My
Music, My pictures...are regenerated.

I tried to fix those by "modifying" their local registry to change all stuff
pointing to server1 to now pointing to server2. I also checked their OU, and
Property of My Docment, and %Appdata%...they all pointed to the server2.

But why "part" of the folders were still re-generated back in the old
server, which is server1?

If my descriptions were kind of confusing, please email me at
and I can send you some screenshots so you can
understand more what I try to say...

Thank you very much for your help.

Bobson

Hi Herba,

I did the gpreport. and it was in the right OU with right GPO. Also, I right
click on my documents and it was pointing to the new server. So I assume GPO
part is right? what is rsop.msc?

Thank you for your response!

Bobson

"herba98" wrote:

> Did you try to run "rsop.msc" on client machine to verify which GPO is
> applied?
>
> HB
>
> On 19 ago, 11:52, Bobson <Bob...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > Hi Everyone,
> >
> > Help again
> >
> > There are some users with GPO and account setups so that My Document and
> > Application Data folder are set to Server1.
> >
> > Now I just tried to move the users to Server2, which is a new server. I did
> > those by creating a new GPO so My Documents and App data all will redirect to
> > the new server. Same as the account settings so all users have pointed to
> > their own folders. Then I also move their folders to the new servers. And
> > deleted the old ones in the old server.
> >
> > Now, most parts are right! People have pointed to the right folders,
> > including My Documents and Application Data folder. However, I found out
> > that... some people's application data folders were still re-generated on the
> > old server. One person's My Documents folder is regenerated. But all his
> > contents are still at the new server. Only some of the contents such as My
> > Music, My pictures...are regenerated.
> >
> > I tried to fix those by "modifying" their local registry to change all stuff
> > pointing to server1 to now pointing to server2. I also checked their OU, and
> > Property of My Docment, and %Appdata%...they all pointed to the server2.
> >
> > But why "part" of the folders were still re-generated back in the old
> > server, which is server1?
> >
> > If my descriptions were kind of confusing, please email me at
> > ultrabob...@hotmail.com and I can send you some screenshots so you can
> > understand more what I try to say...
> >
> > Thank you very much for your help.
> >
> > Bobson
>
>

"Bobson" <> wrote in message
news:E70D7815-9880-46C4-9A7E-...
> Hi Herba,
>
> I did the gpreport. and it was in the right OU with right GPO. Also, I
> right
> click on my documents and it was pointing to the new server. So I assume
> GPO
> part is right? what is rsop.msc?
>
> Thank you for your response!
>
> Bobson


Did you use groups to control redirection? If so, did you create a new group
for the new redirect policy and appropriately create the policy based on the
group? If so, the policy would have *automatically* move the files after
they logon with the new GPO in the background. There would have been no need
to move them manually.

--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum to benefit from collaboration
among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.

Ace Fekay, MCT, MCTS Exchange, MCSE, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSA Messaging
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Hi Ace, and Herba,

Thank you for your response!

Ace, yes. I did. I create a new ou with a similar group policy which
redirect the folders to the new server.

Now I found out: I mentioned I have already modified the local policy on the
local PC which the user having trouble with. In fact, i just found that I did
not do it completely. In order to modify fully the registry, I needed to have
the user logged on as her account. I spent almost an hour to finish the
modification with hundreds of entries (I know replace with but may not work
in this case as the paths could be various).

Another solution here...which I should not have written down here... I also
tried to modify the profile on both the server and local pc...but that may
lose something as well...


Rather than the methods above... so what else can I do?

Bobson

"Ace Fekay [MCT]" wrote:

> "Bobson" <> wrote in message
> news:E70D7815-9880-46C4-9A7E-...
> > Hi Herba,
> >
> > I did the gpreport. and it was in the right OU with right GPO. Also, I
> > right
> > click on my documents and it was pointing to the new server. So I assume
> > GPO
> > part is right? what is rsop.msc?
> >
> > Thank you for your response!
> >
> > Bobson
>
>
> Did you use groups to control redirection? If so, did you create a new group
> for the new redirect policy and appropriately create the policy based on the
> group? If so, the policy would have *automatically* move the files after
> they logon with the new GPO in the background. There would have been no need
> to move them manually.
>
> --
> Ace
>
> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
> confers no rights.
>
> Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum to benefit from collaboration
> among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.
>
> Ace Fekay, MCT, MCTS Exchange, MCSE, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSA Messaging
> Microsoft Certified Trainer
>
> For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
> http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
>
>

"Bobson" <> wrote in message
news:F03192AC-7CD3-4E67-AE18-...
> Hi Ace, and Herba,
>
> Thank you for your response!
>
> Ace, yes. I did. I create a new ou with a similar group policy which
> redirect the folders to the new server.
>
> Now I found out: I mentioned I have already modified the local policy on
> the
> local PC which the user having trouble with. In fact, i just found that I
> did
> not do it completely. In order to modify fully the registry, I needed to
> have
> the user logged on as her account. I spent almost an hour to finish the
> modification with hundreds of entries (I know replace with but may not
> work
> in this case as the paths could be various).
>
> Another solution here...which I should not have written down here... I
> also
> tried to modify the profile on both the server and local pc...but that may
> lose something as well...
>
>
> Rather than the methods above... so what else can I do?
>
> Bobson

Hi Bobson,

First, I would back out all those register entries and whatever changes you
made. As I said, that is not necessary. Redirection is automatic.

When I asked if you used groups, I didn't mean "group" policy rather that
you setup the GPO for the redirection based on AD groups. Read the following
I previously put together explaining how to setup redirection, and let me
know if you did it this way.

================================================== ================
Folder Redirection
By Ace Fekay, MCT, MCTS Exchnange, MCSE
Updated 7/22/08

I believe Folder Redirection with using Offline Files will be the better
solution for many environments. I have it implemented in all my customer
sites. All data with redirection set, as well as offline files, are cached
locally and only synch up at scheduled, manually set times, or when logging
on or off. It vastly reduces client to server traffic. Here are some links
regarding redirection.

Using Folder Redirection for the My Docs, App data, Start Menu and Desktop,
a user will get their data no matter where they login. Enabling Offline
Files as well, will provide an additional performance increase on the user
side, as well as the ability to take machines off-site (such as laptops) and
the folks will have their data no matter where they are. However, I usually
just implement Folder Redirection with the My Documents folder, and not the
others, due to the overhead of data and backup capacities on the server. You
know how large the application folder can get, and not always a good choice
to implement redirection with. Keep that in mind when you implement this
feature.

There are a few things that need to be setup in place to make redirection
work. If in a mixed Vista/XP environment, as many are going through right
now, it may be a little challenging, but they can use the same home folder
setting, but the user must stick with one OS or the other, not logon to an
XP, then to a Vista, or things may get skewed.

1. The user accounts need to be in the OU the Redirection Policy will apply
to. It doesn't matter where the computer accounts are. This is because
Redirection is a User based Policy.

2. More than likely, the Redirection policy is probably setup to apply to a
group. Therefore, make sure the user account is part of that group.

3. Only the internal DNS servers must show up in a machine's IP properties.

4. They way I setup the shares, is create a root folder called Users. I
share it out as Users$ and set share permissions to only System=FC and
Domain Admins=FC.

5. Create child folders, one for each user. The share permissions for the
user must be set to Full Control, or it won't work. For example, for a user
named Bill, I create a Bill folder, then share it out as Bill$, and set the
share permissions to:
Domain Admins=FC
System=FC
Bill=FC.

6. The user MUST have FC for both the share and the NTFS permissions.
Therefore, I set the NTFS permissions (the Security tab) to:
Domain Admins=FC
System=FC,
Bill=FC.

6. In the user's AD properties, Profile tab, you want to configure a home
folder, and this is assuming you want their stuff redirected to the home
folder, such as clicking on G, H, or whatever letter, then configuring
something like \\servername\%username%$ (the $ makes it hidden). Whether to
hide it or not depends on corporate SOP. The %username% is a variable that
will create the folder for you, but I usually do it manually, as in the
previous steps.

7. Create an AD group, call it (for example), "My Docs Redirect Group."
Create the Redirect policy based on the group membership, for example the My
Documents folder, should be redirected to \\servername\username$\. You can
also create it as \\servername\username$\MyDocuments Documents, which I like
because their data goes into a subfolder under the user folder as My
Documents. This require additional testing on your part to make sure the
respective data goes into the folders you've specified. However, many
installations simply specify the Home folder, \\servername\username$, which
is easy, and and it works well. I've been using this method myself (outlined
in the next step), however, with this method, ALL of their documents wind up
directly in the root of the home folder. However, this could be a little
problematic with Vista. For more info on Vista and XP in a mixed
environment, and problems that may occur, please read the links at the
bottom of this article that will provide additional information on how to
handle this issue.

8. In the My Documents policy setting, select "Advanced - Specify Location
based on various User Groups. Add the AD group you just created. For the
target folder location, Redirect to the Home Folder. After you click OK, it
will display a UNC in the form of: \\%HOMESERVER%%HOMEPATH%. Under the
settings tab, check the box that says Grant the user exclusive rights to My
Docs. Also select to Move the Contents, as well as Leave the Folder in the
new location when the policy is removed.

9. I usually create a logon bat script, place it in the NETLOGON share, and
specify the script name in thier AD properties, to manually map the same
drive letter specified under the Profile tab for the home folder to the home
folder, such as with a command line of "net use h: \\servername\username$".
It can also be done using VB and a logon script in their GPOs. The script
normally does multiple other things as well. I'm just pointing out this
portion of it. It is your choice of using VB, CMD or bat files when creating
a script.

10. Enable Offline Use for the redirected My Documents.

11. Repeat for the other folders, if you choose to include them. I would set
them to use subfolders, such as Application Data, so the data doesn't get
intermixed with the My Docs.

12. Link the GPO to the OU you want it to apply to. Keep in mind, it will
not work until you add the users that you want it to apply to, to the My
Docs Redirect Group, that you've created.

13. If you ever need to move the Users folder location to a new server,
simply mirror the shared folders and permissions from the old server on the
new server drive (no need to copy the data), and change the policy to point
to the new UNC. Next time the user logs on, the data will be moved
automatically. The larger the amount of data, the longer it will take. For
example, one customer had a 10 GB home folder. It took about 20 minutes to
move, however the user was able to work. Some of the files weren't available
immediately, but they eventually showed up.

======

One issue you may come across is if you do not select to redirect My Music,
simply because you don't want that sort of stuff on the server for multiple
reasons (space, for one), but some of the users wise up and figure out
what's going on, and they start saving their music in their My Docs folder,
you can control that using Microsoft's FSRM.

FSRM - File Server Resource Manager
By using File Server Resource Manager, administrators can place quotas on
folders and volumes, actively screen files, and generate comprehensive
storage reports:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...03(WS.10).aspx

======

Related Links:

Recommendations for Folder Redirection: Group Policy
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...25(WS.10).aspx

Folder Redirection feature in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232692

How To Configure Folder Redirection, Aug 22, 2007 ... How to use Group
Policy to redirect the "Desktop", "My Documents", "Start Menu" and
"Application Data" folders.
http://www.msterminalservices.org/ar...direction.html

How to Configure Folder Redirection
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc782799.aspx

How To Configure Folder Redirection
http://www.msterminalservices.org/ar...direction.html

User Profiles and Folder Redirection FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/com...anage_faq.mspx

Enabling the administrator to have access to redirected folders
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288991

Folder Redirection in a mixed environment XP/Vista
http://www.gpanswers.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2257

When you redirect the Documents folder on a Windows Vista-based computer to
a network share, the folder name unexpectedly changes back to Documents
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947222/en-us

Profile and Folder Redirection In Windows Server 2003 (Explains the
differences between a Roaming profile and a non-roaming profile,
recommending to not use Roaming Profiles and just use Folder Redirection:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/art...rver-2003.html

======

Ace

I had a problem with redirecting "My Documents". The server had failed and the
target for the "My Documents was updated in the GPO to the new server where
there was a copy of the users "My Documents" folders. However any user that had
an existing local profile on a PC could not access the "My Documents" folder.
Users logging in to a workstation for the first time had no problem.

Eventually I traced this via an event log entry which was reporting that the
original "My Documents" folder could not be accessed. This was because the old
server was gone (similar to you deleting the old folders). The cause was the
setting in the GPO to "move the content" to the new location. This move was
failing because the source folder (the original "My Documents") was not
accessible . The solution was to untick the box to move the content to the new
location and then the GPO set the new location without trying to copy the
content. This did not fail and since like you the content was already moved it
just started to work again.


On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:52:01 -0700, Bobson <>
wrote:

>Hi Everyone,
>
>Help again
>
>There are some users with GPO and account setups so that My Document and
>Application Data folder are set to Server1.
>
>Now I just tried to move the users to Server2, which is a new server. I did
>those by creating a new GPO so My Documents and App data all will redirect to
>the new server. Same as the account settings so all users have pointed to
>their own folders. Then I also move their folders to the new servers. And
>deleted the old ones in the old server.
>
>Now, most parts are right! People have pointed to the right folders,
>including My Documents and Application Data folder. However, I found out
>that... some people's application data folders were still re-generated on the
>old server. One person's My Documents folder is regenerated. But all his
>contents are still at the new server. Only some of the contents such as My
>Music, My pictures...are regenerated.
>
>I tried to fix those by "modifying" their local registry to change all stuff
>pointing to server1 to now pointing to server2. I also checked their OU, and
>Property of My Docment, and %Appdata%...they all pointed to the server2.
>
>But why "part" of the folders were still re-generated back in the old
>server, which is server1?
>
>If my descriptions were kind of confusing, please email me at
> and I can send you some screenshots so you can
>understand more what I try to say...
>
>Thank you very much for your help.
>
>Bobson
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

"DaveMills" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I had a problem with redirecting "My Documents". The server had failed and
>the
> target for the "My Documents was updated in the GPO to the new server
> where
> there was a copy of the users "My Documents" folders. However any user
> that had
> an existing local profile on a PC could not access the "My Documents"
> folder.
> Users logging in to a workstation for the first time had no problem.
>
> Eventually I traced this via an event log entry which was reporting that
> the
> original "My Documents" folder could not be accessed. This was because the
> old
> server was gone (similar to you deleting the old folders). The cause was
> the
> setting in the GPO to "move the content" to the new location. This move
> was
> failing because the source folder (the original "My Documents") was not
> accessible . The solution was to untick the box to move the content to the
> new
> location and then the GPO set the new location without trying to copy the
> content. This did not fail and since like you the content was already
> moved it
> just started to work again.


Good point, Dave. I think the manual move messed it up. That was one of the
reasons why I recommend to let the system do it automatically, with no reg
or other changes that the poster performed, otherwise it complicates matters
and maks it tougher to straighten out.

I had to do it for 40 users at one customer site when I moved the folder to
a new server. I just changed the GPO settings, tested it by logging on as my
account, which had hardly any data in it, and it automatically moved it
(checked by looking at properties of My Documents to see what the target
location is). Yes, changed it on a Saturday. :-) I called the boss and told
her what to expect on Monday morning, which really was nothing because it
was transparent (redirect with Offline option uses the local cache), and if
any problems, to contact me right away. I never heard from her! I later
randomly checked about 1/2 of the user's registry settings remotely for the
target location, and they were all now pointing to the new location. Cool...
:-)

Ace

On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:03:25 -0400, "Ace Fekay [MCT]"
<> wrote:

>"DaveMills" <> wrote in message
>news:.. .
>>I had a problem with redirecting "My Documents". The server had failed and
>>the
>> target for the "My Documents was updated in the GPO to the new server
>> where
>> there was a copy of the users "My Documents" folders. However any user
>> that had
>> an existing local profile on a PC could not access the "My Documents"
>> folder.
>> Users logging in to a workstation for the first time had no problem.
>>
>> Eventually I traced this via an event log entry which was reporting that
>> the
>> original "My Documents" folder could not be accessed. This was because the
>> old
>> server was gone (similar to you deleting the old folders). The cause was
>> the
>> setting in the GPO to "move the content" to the new location. This move
>> was
>> failing because the source folder (the original "My Documents") was not
>> accessible . The solution was to untick the box to move the content to the
>> new
>> location and then the GPO set the new location without trying to copy the
>> content. This did not fail and since like you the content was already
>> moved it
>> just started to work again.
>
>
>Good point, Dave. I think the manual move messed it up. That was one of the
>reasons why I recommend to let the system do it automatically, with no reg
>or other changes that the poster performed, otherwise it complicates matters
>and maks it tougher to straighten out.
>
>I had to do it for 40 users at one customer site when I moved the folder to
>a new server. I just changed the GPO settings, tested it by logging on as my
>account, which had hardly any data in it, and it automatically moved it
>(checked by looking at properties of My Documents to see what the target
>location is). Yes, changed it on a Saturday. :-) I called the boss and told
>her what to expect on Monday morning, which really was nothing because it
>was transparent (redirect with Offline option uses the local cache), and if
>any problems, to contact me right away. I never heard from her! I later
>randomly checked about 1/2 of the user's registry settings remotely for the
>target location, and they were all now pointing to the new location. Cool...
>:-)
>
>Ace

Yes, It is a pity the MOC (at least that I used for W2K) skates over this topic
and does not discuss procedures for recovering from a failed "My Documents"
server. Obviously the only option is to manually restore to a new server. Then
you hit this problem when trying to change the GPO to the new server.

--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

"DaveMills" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Yes, It is a pity the MOC (at least that I used for W2K) skates over this
> topic
> and does not discuss procedures for recovering from a failed "My
> Documents"
> server. Obviously the only option is to manually restore to a new server.
> Then
> you hit this problem when trying to change the GPO to the new server.
>

You're right, the MOC courseware doesn't get into detail. It's one of the
things I offer in addition during a lecture, and if I have time, I demo it.

But keep in mind the idea is to not do it manually. The system will do it
automatically for you. If you did it manually, it complicates trying to fix
it.

Ace

Hi Dave, and Ace,

Thank you again for your great details. Please give me sometime to digest
them...as I have some questions and clarrifications already

Thank you again, and stay in touch!

Bobson

"Ace Fekay [MCT]" wrote:

> "DaveMills" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> >
> > Yes, It is a pity the MOC (at least that I used for W2K) skates over this
> > topic
> > and does not discuss procedures for recovering from a failed "My
> > Documents"
> > server. Obviously the only option is to manually restore to a new server.
> > Then
> > you hit this problem when trying to change the GPO to the new server.
> >
>
> You're right, the MOC courseware doesn't get into detail. It's one of the
> things I offer in addition during a lecture, and if I have time, I demo it.
>
> But keep in mind the idea is to not do it manually. The system will do it
> automatically for you. If you did it manually, it complicates trying to fix
> it.
>
> Ace
>
>
>