I have the following problem (on my boss' laptop) with offline files on Windows 8.1: everything works as expected in our LAN. If the device is attached to the network, all files can be accessed, if it is offline, only the ones marked as available offline can be accessed. However, when establishing a VPN connection from outside (we are using Cisco AnyConnect), the files remain offline (not connected, no slow connection). Furthermore, the button for explicitly switching between online and offline is greyed out.

Some background info: we are using DFS with the following structure.

\\domain\dfsroot\home\username is the path to the users' homes, which are (optionally) available offline.

\\server\homes\ is the share that currently exports all users' folders, so \\server\homes\username is the physical location of the above-mentioned path.

Each user is added separately in the namespace, ie we add \\server\homes\username in the DFS namespace, not \\server\homes as a whole.

When the laptop is in the problematic state, the user is able to access all other users' homes via \\domain\dfsroot\home\otheruser. The only path that is not working is his own folder. It is offline when using the UNC path, the mapped drive letter and the redirected shell folders. The DFS tab in the directory properties nevertheless shows that the share is OK.

I have already tried several suggestions from the internet, which did not help so far. These are: allow all authenticated users traversing \\server\homes, disable slow link detection via GPO, and ensure that IPv6 is enabled.

How can I enabled access to the user's share via VPN?

Thanks in advance,
Christoph

I just got an update from my boss: it seems to work now after the machine was rebooted. I assume that my changes to group policy had not been completely applied. The only remaining issue now is that it says that some files could not be swiched online when using the button in Windows Explorer.

• Edited by Christoph Müller 9 hours 52 minutes ago

I just got an update from my boss: it seems to work now after the machine was rebooted. I assume that my changes to group policy had not been completely applied. The only remaining issue now is that it says that some files could not be swiched online when using the button in Windows Explorer.

• Edited by Christoph Müller Friday, March 27, 2015 9:30 PM

Hi Christoph,

If you are using any Group Policy for folder redirection or offline files, the Enable/Disable Offline Files would be Grayed Out to make sure it cannot be changed by domain users.

If it is not the case, try following steps

In offline files also has a service running in the system. Stopping this service will disable offline files feature on the system and this does not require a reboot. But when the system is rebooted offline files will be enabled again. To disable offline files feature permanently on the system do the following.

Open registry editor

Go to the node HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC

From the list of registry values displayed in the right side pane, change the data in the registry value Start

4=disable

1=enable

Close registry editor and reboot the machine.

Regards

D. Wu

If you are using any Group Policy for folder redirection or offline files, the Enable/Disable Offline Files would be Grayed Out to make sure it cannot be changed by domain users.

We have a GPO in place, but neither "Prohibit user configuration of Offline Files" nor "Prevent use of Offline Files folder" are configured, so the user should be able to configure offline files and switch between offline and online mode. The problem seemed to be that the machine did not recognise the folders being online after the VPN connection was established - I could not investigate this in detail, because it happend outside the office.

The problem did, however, not occur again after the machine was rebooted.

Best regards,
Christoph

• Proposed as answer by Deason WuMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 22 hours 50 minutes ago
• Marked as answer by Christoph Müller 22 hours 24 minutes ago