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Offline files stuck in offline mode over WIFI

Question

Monday, March 5, 2018 9:44 PM | 1 vote

We are experiencing an issue with Windows 10 laptops that use offline files over wireless. The wireless connection shows 72Mbps and yes occasionally the latency goes up to 30ms when tranferring a file but offline files still gets stuck in Offline mode and you can't get it back into Online. Connection to the server is just fine and you can browse network drives without any issues.

I have tried to turn off the Slow-Link mode in GPO but it still happens.

I see others having this issue with Windows 10 and in Windows 7 you had a button to force it online, but that is gone in Windows 10. Anyone else have a solution for this?

All replies (13)

Wednesday, March 7, 2018 6:58 AM | 3 votes

Hi,

What if you right click the file and select Sync? Did the status bar in the bottom of the Explorer show offline?

Try this:

1. Open the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Open Sync Center in the Control Panel.

3. Click Manage offline files in the left column of the Sync Center window.

4. Click the Network tab in the Offline Files window.

5. Confirm if the “On slow connections, automatically work offline” box is checked and how frequency you configured the Offline Files to check for a slow network connection.

In addition, you can click  File Explorer -> Home -> New -> Easy Access -> Work Offline button to get the offline file online. If you click it again, it will back to offline.

Note: It will never change to work online. You need to monitor the status from the status bar of the File Explorer at the bottom.

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Wednesday, March 7, 2018 9:45 PM

I disabled the "On slow connections, automatically work offline" with GPO and saw the checkbox was unchecked.

Also it will go offline and you can sync it because when you tell it to sync all it will go online real quick and then get kicked right back offline. I configured the sync to happen every 15 minutes via GPO.

I've tried many things and I imagine it is the slow link but with it off it still thinks it is disconnected. The status bar will stay offline unless I manually sync it or the 15 min time period changes.

Thursday, March 8, 2018 9:27 AM

Hi，

According to the current situation, it seems network is fine.

Let's try this:

Step one: Turn off "offline available" feature on this file.

Step two: Clear the CSC cache:

You have two methods to clear or reset it.

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.

Afterwards, check the result. If it can keep online. We would make it offline available again for test.

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 3:08 PM

I have already done all of that. I have narrowed this down to being over WIFI but as mentioned above why would it be detecting slow links (if that is what it is doing) when I have that disabled.

Friday, March 9, 2018 10:28 AM

Hi，

So the issue persists after disable offline and enable it again, right?  What if wired network connection?

Did you use metered wifi connection? Any event information when it turn online to offline?

In addition, it could be synced fine thus that doesn't affect your normal usage.

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2018 11:38 AM

Any chance you found a solution for this? I am having the same issue with a bunch of our Windows 10 1709 users. When they are working from home (on wifi) over VPN their offline files state stays in Offline mode and under Windows 10 we cannot force it to go online like we did in Windows 7. Would really be great if there was some way to force it online.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 8:57 PM | 1 vote

I disabled the "On slow connections, automatically work offline" with GPO and saw the checkbox was unchecked.

OMG! how did you do this? I have been searching for days trying to figure that out. What is the policy setting please let me know, pretty please!

My issue is completely different, in that i never want offline files to trigger because i am on LAN and trying to set a minimum ping required isnt working. So i am having a 52ms ping knock my win10 clients offline. i NEED to uncheck this checkbox and disable the feature! the microsoftie I am dealing with says its not possible, but you are saying it is? how did you do it!

EDIT: Incidentally, there is a button to force it online. its just hidden. go to the root of the DFS share and find the easy access button. The work offline button is a toggle under there. I am using that as a work around right now. Its on the home  tab

Thursday, April 5, 2018 10:40 AM

 

EDIT: Incidentally, there is a button to force it online. its just hidden. go to the root of the DFS share and find the easy access button. The work offline button is a toggle under there. I am using that as a work around right now. Its on the home  tab

OMG! Thanks so much. I never noticed that.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018 9:29 PM

It would be a perfect solution if it actually worked! I find over a slow VPN that this work offline button doesn’t actually bring me back online. I would really like to disable the “On slow connections, automatically work offline” setting. How do I do that when it’s greyed out?

Monday, November 19, 2018 8:05 PM

The policy you need: "Configure slow-link mode"=Disabled

Doesn't exactly jump out at you.

Tuesday, November 20, 2018 4:00 PM

And it also does not work to disable it in reality.

Friday, March 1, 2019 4:41 PM | 1 vote

I knew this setting was hidden somewhere on the file Explorer, just could not remember where. You just saved me a whole lot of research and headache. 

Thanks 

Thursday, August 8, 2019 1:29 PM

The File Explorer -> Home -> New -> Easy Access -> Work Offline button

1. Is in a terrible place.  Users are constantly forgetting where it is.

2. Is hard for users to understand.  (They expect it to say online and offline.)

3. Is hard for users to tell whether or not it is active.  (The slight highlight on the left indicating it is "On" Offline Mode is very confusing to the standard user.  Many don't even notice it.)

4. Doesn't auto refresh the user's view after clicking it.  (Which further confuses most users.  They think it just didn't do anything.)

Is there a way to create your own button and add it to the ribbon to accomplish this function?