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Offline Files Issues over VPN Connection

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Thursday, April 13, 2017 1:49 PM

On a Windows 10 Enterprise computer, with a VPN connection to my work network, I navigated to my home network folder, down to a specific sub-folder that I wanted available offline. So I chose the option to make this folder available offline. Once the Sync operation completed, I could see all files in this folder. However, now, any time I'm on VPN, that folder (and files within) is all I can access. I have many other folders on this network home directory, and before setting up the offline access to the one folder, my access to the whole home folder structure over VPN was working fine.

The option to "Stop sync with offline files" in the sync center is grayed out.  The two methods described on the forum for resetting the offline cache are unavailable to me as I only have user permissions on the machine.

I was able to uncheck the "always available offline" option for the one folder, but the result of doing that is that when I navigate to the network server and parent "home" folder, I don't see ANY sub-folders - so effectively, I can no longer access my network home directory via VPN.  I can access via LAN, but I'm on leave until 18 Apr so do not have LAN access and need the files in my home directory! 

How can I undo offline files to be able to access my home folder again? 

All replies (3)

Friday, April 14, 2017 2:30 AM

Hi jdigiovanni,

Did the issue (offline grey out) only occur with the specific machine? Is it available to enable offline for other network drives(not a home directory)?

The offline feature shouldn't affect the usage of network drive and it would ensure we could use the network drive files(local cache) when the network drive is offline.

"Greyed out" usually means we didn`t have the permissions or the option is controlled by a gpo.

If the issue ( (offline grey out)) occurred with other machine, please check the gp result for any gpo to disable the offline feature.

If the issue ( offline grey out)only occurred with the specific machine and it occurred with all the network drives, please refer to the following steps to reset the offline cache. If you are lack of the permissions to do those operations, please contact the administrator for help.
Method one: use registry entry

  1. Open up registry editor (WARNING: Only for Advanced Users)
  2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Csc
  3. Add a new key (folder) called Parameters
  4. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Csc\Parameters, add a new DWORD called FormatDatabase and set its value to 1
  5. You will need to reboot the PC afterwards.

Method two: clear the CSC folder

  1. Located to C:\Windows\CSC
  2. To access this folder, you need take ownership firstly.
  3. Right-click CSC folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
  4. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
  5. Click Edit. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
  6. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.
  7. .If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Then clear all content in this folder.

If the issue(offline grey out) only occurred with the home directory network drive, I suspect there is a network issue.
Please try to ping the home directory network drive both with the IP address and name. Turn off the firewall and antivirus software temporarily. If it is not available to ping the home network with the VPN. There may be something wrong with the VPN.

Best regards

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Friday, April 14, 2017 3:40 PM

First, I don't dare try this with any other network folders, based on the problems I've had with my own home folder.  Also, I have no idea if others have tried this on their machines, nor do I have a second machine to troubleshoot with.  

More importantly, as I stated in my post, I do not have admin rights, because this machine is an enterprise-managed machine and I am an ordinary user.  I have no doubt that a GPO is to blame, and I have a ticket open with our enterprise service desk.  However, they are overwhelmed and may not get to this ticket until long after my immediate need (now today!) to access my home folder via VPN.  So I was hoping that there was some action I could take as a normal user to resolve this.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017 8:17 AM

Hi jdigiovanni,

How about the issue, is there anything to update? Have you tried to ping the home directory network drive both with the IP address and name?

To troubleshoot this issue deeply, we'd better to have administrator permission of this computer.

Best regards

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].