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Redirected Offline files not available in windows 7 explorer search - search results remain empty

Answered Redirected Offline files not available in windows 7 explorer search - search results remain empty

  • Wednesday, March 23, 2011 9:08 AM
     
     
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    Hello all,

    we are using Win7 Enterprise with W2K8 R2 file server.

    All users get there home drive mapped as network drive from this file server and GPO redirects this "personal drive" to Win7 library "documents". Also GPO enables Offline Folder function for this "personal drive".

    We are facing the following issue:

    Users cannot search inside their personal drive using explorer search. No matter if they search for file extensions or file names - the search result remains empty.

    Any ideas of what went wrong here?

    Thank you

     

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  • Friday, March 25, 2011 2:27 AM
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    Hi,

     

    Please check if the steps in the following similar thread helps:

     

    How do I get windows 7 to Index a network mapped drive?

     

    Regards,

     

    Sabrina

     

    This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights. |Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
     
  • Tuesday, March 29, 2011 10:25 AM
     
     
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    Hi,

    I have checked seriously the MS how to's in this matter but still could not fix this issue!

    I have already cleaned up the CSC Folder and also rebuild the index several times ( offline folders are in scope of indexing ) but could not fix it.

    Even a *.* search on the regarding offline folder stays empty and does not show any results.

    Any ideas would be really appreciated!

    Thanks

    Thomas

     
  • Wednesday, March 30, 2011 5:38 AM
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    Hi,

     

    Have you taken the steps in the link which I provided?

     

    How do I get windows 7 to Index a network mapped drive?

     

    Add a non-indexed UNC as a library
    -------------------------------------------------
    1. Create a folder on your hard drive for shares. i.e. c:\share
    2. Create another folder in the above share. i.e. c:\share\music
    2. Link the Library to this folder.
    3. Delete the folder.
    4. Use the mklink in an elevated command prompt to make a symbolic link. Name the link the same as the folder you created above.
    i.e - mklink /d c:\share\music \\server\music
    5. Done. Now you have non-indexed UNC path as a library.

    ·          

    Regards,

     

    Sabrina

    This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights. |Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
     
  • Friday, May 27, 2011 2:53 PM
     
     
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    Hello,

    I too am experiencing the same issue as the original poster (thoby).  With a Win7 ENT client and a W2K8 R2 with file server role and Windows Search Service.  Users "My Documents" are redirected to a shared folder on the server and Offline Files are enabled on the Win7 Client.  I have figured out the following;

    With Windows Search Service installed on the server doing a search on the client with Offline Files enabled there are NO results returned.

    With NO Windows Search Service installed on the server doing a search on the client with Offline Files enabled there are results returned.

    With Windows Search Service installed on the server doing a search on the client with Offline Files DISABLED there are results returned.

    Sabrina, The link you provide and answer you propose does NOT address this issue and configuration in my opinion.  Nor is it a realistic approach when it would have to be implemented on over 1000 clients.  We are an org where we have to do 'more with less' and can't afford the latest "Enterprise Search" offerings from MS.

    What I need to know in order to move forward in our Win7 rollout design is;

    Is this behavior by design?  Is this behavior expected?

    Thanks,

    Richard J. C.

     
  • Monday, June 06, 2011 1:44 PM
     
     
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    Hi Richard,

    I Don't think that you should enable the windows search service on regartding W2K8 R2 file server.

    From my point of view, this problem only belongs to the local client and the indexing service itself.

    Did you already try this "funny" thing:

    Open your windows explorer - go to the offline folder content - type in something you would like to search for - the result should be an empty window

    now please leave the empty result window open and rebuild the index!

    After the index is deleted and rebuild started up, you should get the results in your search window you would always like to have!

    I am currently in a MS call in regards to this issue - now already since a view weeks - currently it looks like that a computer based policy is causing this issue. But this is just an assumption, while we do not have any GPO configured to modify or break the search service behaviour! I assume this while installing a fresh windows 7 enterprise OS in an OU where no computer based policy is applied shows that searching/indexing is working fine.

    I will keep all updated.

     

     
  • Monday, June 06, 2011 1:57 PM
     
     
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    Thanks for the reply thoby,

    I'll try your "funny" thing and let you know if I get the same result.

    Regarding not enabling the Windows search service on the server.  This doesn't work for us as we are also hostingc file shares and need to leverage the indexing on the server for those shares.  They are too large in size to expect users to make "always offline" and use offline files. So in our environment, we have users with "Documents" redirected to the server for private documents and a mapped drive for shared documents.

    RichardJC...

     
  • Friday, June 24, 2011 7:40 PM
     
     
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    Hi thoby,

    I have tried your 'funny' thing and can reproduce the behavior where we have to delete and rebuild the index and now the search will return results.  There is one other piece of information and that is for this to work there must be at least one 'sync' of the offline files.  I have had to manually select all the files in the redirected folder and force a sync.

    RichardJC...

    • Proposed As Answer by Fowler Friday, January 18, 2013 1:05 PM
    • Unproposed As Answer by Fowler Friday, January 18, 2013 1:05 PM
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  • Friday, January 18, 2013 1:07 PM
     
     
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    Hi,

    Try this user GPO as a solution:

    User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Compontents/Windows Explorer/

    Turn off Windows Libraries features that rely on indexed file data
    Enabled

    Allows Documents Redirection into libraries that are indexed for search.

     
  • Monday, January 28, 2013 9:32 AM
     
     
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    Hi,

    The solution suggested by Sabrina is not a realistic approach in my opinion and Fowlers will cripple how the library works. I know this tread is old but I hope some of you found a solution.

    The problem only seems to affect the computers with GPO assigned.

    /Søren Emig