Win 10 - user profile sync offline - pronto help needed

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

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Need some help pronto here.

I am trying to get users profiles to sync offline on windows 10 laptops.

I created a new GPO that enables offiline files, but how do I get the profile now to sync offline?
 
Not sure i follow,
if oyu have offline files set in GPO it should sync whilst online so that the files ARE indeed available offline.
You can't actually sync offline, cos, well, you're offline...with nothing to connect to.
When you go back online to sync you should then be presented with a choice of what to do with the mistmatch in docs from your offline docs folder to the online ones. (if that makes sense)
 
I can login to the user account.

If I turn off the WiFi to simulate the user being out of the office, it doesn't display the user profile when I login.

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Is this what I'm trying to do?
 
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Really need to get this to work.

All I'm trying to do is get the users roaming profile to sync offline when the user is not connected to the domain.

Any ideas?
 
Woah.....why have a roaming profile and not local?
Are you on a domain?
Most people don't recommend the use of roaming profiles, they've been crap since svr2003/xp days, and still cause issues now.
 
Yep domain. We basically have laptops which the end user will use whilst in the office and then when they are out of the office their last profile will load etc... an then they come back in to the office it will then go and do a sync.
 
any reason you have it that way?
We're on a domain, but use local profiles.
Our userdocs are redirected to a network share by GPO. If using offline files then they will copy across to the laptops local profile.
If you work on the docs from home, then next time you come onto the netowrk they will resync and usually notify you that there are different versions of the same doc and offers you choice on how to proceed.

Again, roaming profiles are a ball-ache mate, so unless you have compelling reasons to use them, i really wouldn't bother.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
any reason you have it that way?
We're on a domain, but use local profiles.
Our userdocs are redirected to a network share by GPO. If using offline files then they will copy across to the laptops local profile.
If you work on the docs from home, then next time you come onto the network they will resync and usually notify you that there are different versions of the same doc and offers you choice on how to proceed.

Again, roaming profiles are a ball-ache mate, so unless you have compelling reasons to use them, i really wouldn't bother.
Click to expand...

Hmm yep sounds like it. I'm trying to convince our CEO this is a bad idea as it's his idea.

I've spoken to him but the problem is he doesn't understand the technicalities and doesn't care either. I'm gonna make an executive decision and set up local profiles only.

Thanks
 
opethdisciple said:
Hmm yep sounds like it. I'm trying to convince our CEO this is a bad idea as it's his idea.

I've spoken to him but the problem is he doesn't understand the technicalities and doesn't care either. I'm gonna make an executive decision and set up local profiles only.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Lol, good man.
The domain profile installs locally anyway, so there is zero need for a roaming profile, especially if you don't get users hopping onto numerous different computers.
 
With laptops we use local profiles always because of this. If they have roaming, but modify it off the domain, it will be overwritten when they reconnect with server copy.

On another note, what issues do roaming profiles cause?
We use them across desktop users, and whilst perhaps not necessary a lot of the time, they don't seem to cause (m)any issues.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Lol, good man.
The domain profile installs locally anyway, so there is zero need for a roaming profile, especially if you don't get users hopping onto numerous different computers.
Click to expand...

Hmm this is where I am confused. When I speak of a local profile I mean setting up the laptop, not on the domain and create a local user account on the laptop as if this was a personal laptop.

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Now I get the impression your referring to the local profile that windows creates on the machine when a user logs in using their domain credentials. You can see the 'local' profile in the 'Users' folder on the local PC. However when the user logs in when not connected to the domain the profile doesn't load.

Whats the way to solve this issue?

I was just going to go with creating a local account on the laptops and not connecting them to the domain.
 
Roaming profiles are pointless on 1:1 deployments, which is pretty much all deployments these days. For genuine multiple users to a machine deployments use VDI.

The local profile should work fine on the laptop and the domain login details should absolutely be cached so that it works when not on the network - it sounds like a GPO is actively preventing that from happening.
 
Yep, as caged says, the domain profile will locally cache the profile.
If you don't join the laptop to the domain then how do you expect it to get the GPO from the Server that's dealing with group policy? If indeed that is how you're pushing out policy.
Just double check that the profile on the laptop isn't a roaming profile by looking the advanced part of system properties.
 
ajf said:
With laptops we use local profiles always because of this. If they have roaming, but modify it off the domain, it will be overwritten when they reconnect with server copy.

On another note, what issues do roaming profiles cause?
We use them across desktop users, and whilst perhaps not necessary a lot of the time, they don't seem to cause (m)any issues.
Click to expand...

Roaming profiles are primarily used when users flit from one computer to the next. Sometimes a user can log onto a 2nd computer when their roaming profile is still open on another computer, when the user logs off there can be a battle as to how the profile gets written back, especially if it's still open elsewhere. Historically since server 2003 it's been a ball ache like this. I've not used them on server 2013 but have been advised they ain't much better and to avoid them.
 
Roaming Profiles are perfectly serviceable now since folder redirection and offline caching let you move folders out of the profile - Microsoft call it User State Virtualization now.

There's just no reason to use it outside of very specific use cases. Which sectors do you know where people hot desk onto different PCs? Education, call centres, maybe hotel staff?
 
Caged said:
Roaming Profiles are perfectly serviceable now since folder redirection and offline caching let you move folders out of the profile - Microsoft call it User State Virtualization now.
Click to expand...

Oooh.......I wasn't aware of that, thanks.
There has certainly been periods where roaming profiles would have benefitted us, but even with server 2012r2 we were advised against it.
Might look deeper into this....just because. :p

More importantly, why am I posting at 07:36 on a Saturday morning?!?!?!:eek:
 
Caged said:
Roaming profiles are pointless on 1:1 deployments, which is pretty much all deployments these days. For genuine multiple users to a machine deployments use VDI.

The local profile should work fine on the laptop and the domain login details should absolutely be cached so that it works when not on the network - it sounds like a GPO is actively preventing that from happening.
Click to expand...

This is a possibility. To be honest everything is a huge mess at this company. I've only been here 3 months. They had outsourced their IT support prior to this and the guy was coming in once a week to do a few hours work. So everything from processes to hardware to the state of their active directory is an absolute mess.

There where about 4 offline files GPO in AD. I disabled them all and created my own but couldn't get it to work. Or rather.... I did get offline files turned on, but it didn't solve the issue I was having that when not connected to the domain the profile wasn't loading.

So I must be looking at the wrong GPO.

Plus all my experience prior to this was in a Linux/LDAP environments so Windows server and GPO are mostly new to me.

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The other thing to note is, this company does not have the same sort of spending power as my previous company. Where my previous company would spend 750k on new servers we have spent 13k on upgrading our network. My previous company would chomp through ipads, iphones and macbooks like sweets and throw out perfectly good PC's because they had the smallest of faults.

Here they are clinging on to old hardware and I am doing my best on a budget to rejuvenate the network.

We don't have a big need for expensive solutions and the money wouldn't be approved anyway. Plus if I can avoid setting up VPN's and VDI desktop environments that would be great as I primarily was brought in to help out the Linux admin not spend all my time providing support to end users.

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So just so we are on the same page, your saying by attaching the laptop to the domian and logging in to the laptop for the first time, if the user then went out of the office and tried to login to the laptop again it will load the users profile (desktop files/folders etc...) using the locally cached profile?

Because this is the thing that isn't working.

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My solution at present is going to be creating a local profile on the laptop not attach the laptop to the domain and then the user can transfer stuff they need to the laptop manually and use the laptop as if it is not part of our domain at all.

They only really need it for web based stuff anyway, but the CEO is a different story.
 
Make yourself a testing OU, put a test laptop and a test user in there and disable GPO inheritance. That will rule out any dodgy policies in your environment.
 
My solution at present is going to be creating a local profile on the laptop not attach the laptop to the domain and then the user can transfer stuff they need to the laptop manually and use the laptop as if it is not part of our domain at all.
Click to expand...

Having a local profile does not mean you cannot be domain joined.

Do as Caged has suggested and perhaps spend some time on Microsoft Virtual Academy and maybe see if you can get on a Windows sys admin course of some kind.
 
I got it to work!!!

However I just had a thought. If the user has the laptop and a desktop.

Aren't the two profiles going to get out of sync?

More importantly think of this scenario, the user uses their PC daily and then uses their laptop for travel.

They edit files on the laptop whilst traveling. They come back from traveling and login to their PC.

Now the profile they are logging in to is no longer the most uptodate.

The most uptodate one exists on the laptop.....

:confused:

Am I right?
 
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