There have been many posts on this forum for months now, bemoaning the malfunctioning offline files feature when using Windows 7 (ie trying to sync brings up thousands of errors informing that files are being used by another process).I have a ReadyNAS NVX and the main reason I bought it was for the offline files facility - it was not cheap and I expect it to do what it promised to do when I purchased it.It is absolutely disgraceful that Netgear appear to have done nothing towards remedying this fault in their product line, and have not even publicly acknowleged the issue on this forum.When is something going to be done about this?

I too had been trying to get offline files working with Vista/W7 for a long time. After trying numerous suggestions from the forum, I opened a case with Netgear Help. Their suggestion was as follows:"Sorry for the long delay in response. After some testing we have been able to get offline files to work. However the NAS must be in security mode "USER", and the share must allow guest access. We couldn't get it to work with any other configuration. We will ask our engineers about this issue, but there is no guarantee of a response. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention."Since then I have had offline files work without problem on Vista Buisness 32 and Windows 7 business 64. One thing that I have noiticed is that it appears that as long as one of my shares allows guest access, then all shares can be set to offline.I am using an NVX with 4.2.15.Good luck and look forward to hearing how you go

OFFLINE FILES NOW FIXED!!@BMach I'm afraid your suggestion didn't work. In the process of playing around though I finally found out what is causing the dreadful 'file is in use by another process' error.I noticed that if I rebooted and tried to sync immediately then the process would be error free for a while, and then the usual errors would occur. So it occurred to me that a service must be kicking in belatedly that was causing the conflicts. It is the Windows Search (indexing) service, which by default starts automatically after a delay. Turning this off fixes the problem immediately (although having the NAS in security mode 'USER' may be essential also. It is working now and I can't be bothered to change it back again).I sync'd over 5GB of offline files this morning, have modified and deleted some files, rebooted several times, etc, and have not had a single error (yet).The search service does not index mapped NAS drives but by default it indexes the C:\ drive and any other internal drive. As soon as the Sync service starts shadowing NAS files and folders to the C:\ drive, the search service starts indexing them and this is the process that causes the error.Disabling the search service is easy but a bit of a shame because it works well in Windows 7. On the plus side, removing it will speed your PC up.If, like me, you have spent ages trying to get offline files working with your ReadyNAS then your offline files database will be in a bit of a mess. Before killing the search/indexing service I suggest that you disable offline files, delete any offline files on your C:\ drive and then reset the CSC (client side cache) database. To reset the CSC database use Regedit to create the following dword "FormatDatabase" at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters] and give it a value of 00000001. Then reboot your machine.To disable the search service go Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services and locate the Windows Search service. Stop it and disable it from starting. Then go to Computer and right-click your C:\ drive. Select properties and under the General tab you need to uncheck the tickbox 'Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties' then hit OK. Your PC will probably take several minutes to process this.Reboot, enable offline files again, and you're good to go. :D@BMach I'd be interested to know whether you have the Windows Search service running on your machines?

I have checked and I do not have Windows Search running on the offline files. I think this is a price I am prepared to pay. My recollection however is that at some stage I had turned off Windows Search on the offline files and that alone did not get it going. An internet search does suggest that other NAS devices have a similar problem.

I'm trying to get Offline Files to work at the moment, I've done as naughtyscamp has suggested and disabled search indexing. However I'm not sure what is meant by security mode USER and enabling guest access. Could someone please let me know how to do this as I'm getting error messages whenever I try to sync my offline files, which is disappointing to say the least.

So, this is a HUGE issue. I am an IT consultant in the Raleigh NC area. My company had been doing a lot of testing and roll-out of the ReadyNAS line for a number of years now, and we have had the luxury or working directly with the ReadyNAS technical team (which is excellent)I love the READYNAS line and I am in the midst of moving all the shares off of the servers for a few clients and then virtualizing their servers (after the shares are moved off). All of the shares and VMs are stored on the NAS.I have probably sold about 50 NAS units over the past year to varying customers.Anyways, I am doing a share move this weekend for a small customer with an NVX and I am having this exact issue as well. In my case used the built-in home shares which are automatically created as users hit the NAS. I have a group policy to redirect the My Documents folder to \\NAS\%USERNAME%\My Documents.My NAS has the latest firmware updates. I have tried all the suggestions in this thread and have had no luck. Disabling indexing in Win7 doesnt make a difference. I cleared the CSC folder and that doesnt help. I also tried disableing SMB2.0 (found in another forum) and this doesnt work.The previous poster menas by "Enabling Guest Access" is the little check box under the CIFS properties in the share menu. (this doesnt work on this issue in of itself, BTW) Also, you cannot Enable Guest access for the home share unless you go to the Linux console of the NAS. The guest access defeats the whole purpose of the home share since it is supposed to be PRIVATE.The previous poster also talked of enabled USER security. This is in the security section of the NAS and this is the area where you join the NAS to a domain or not. In my case, I HAVE to have the NAS joined ot the domain because the shares are security controlled by Domain-based Security Groups. Some group allow read-access to some shares, etc. So, if you put your NAS in guest access mode, then you wont be able to pull any of the domain groups/users for ACL purposes.Netgear, this is a big issue and showstopper for many of my clients. If it is a Win 7 Problem, please give us a fix. If it is a NAS issue, please give us a fix. Here I am at a client past midnight trying to figure out what is going on. They are not going to be happy when they cant take their offline files with them when they leave the office with their laptops. Thanks!

Windows 7 and Offline files STILL not working.

29 Replies

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sphardy1
Apprentice
Apr 13, 2011
You can prevent any file from ever being modified/overwritten by making it "immutable" - but it comes with the risk that the OS may not be able to make necessary changes to the file, even during a firmware update. So use with care:

chattr +i /etc/samba/smb.conf
goreo95033
Aspirant
Apr 19, 2011
Melach wrote:
How can you make this persist across reboots? Whenever I reboot my NAS the smb.conf file is reset

I see that my smb.conf file has been touched (date changed to match time of reboot), but the entries I added/changed are still in there.
hoverman
Aspirant
May 26, 2011
All,

So its been a while since I have posted on this thread, as I have revisted with more clients. The methodology I spoke of earlier this year worked for the initial sync, but then started failing on all my users. I saw the post about making changes in smb.conf and the registry, so I gave this a try.

After rebooting my windows test box many times and the readyans NVX many times, as well as doing a lot of synchronizations, I determined the registry changes in Windows 7 are not necessary. The changes to smb.conf is all you need. This is a great find. I am running 4.2.17 now on all my customers. I was hoping the 4.2.17 release would have fixed this but it hasn't.

I think its time to get the Netgear guys involved in this. I shouldnt have to do an SSH and a "chattr -i /etc/samba/smb.conf" everytime I need to make a change via the web interface or update the firmware.

Anyways, I have confirmed editing the smb.conf method works well for using the automatically created home shares. I HAVE NOT confirmed this works on a created "USERS" share.
I have created GPs on a server 2008 R2 domain with all Win 7 64-bit laptops (everyone else is on terminal server 2008 R2) and its working great for my test users. I redirect My Docs, Favorites, and Desktop and its syncing without a hitch. The GP redirects to "\\nas\%USERNAME%\FOLDERNAME", where FOLDERNAME is My Documents, Favorites, etc.

I will see if I can get tech support involved to fix this on the next release, as my company is a Netgear Partner. Will let you know.
cbunting
Aspirant
Aug 19, 2011
Netgear, when are you going to fix this in your firmware??? It is a pain having to go in and edit the smb.conf file everytime. It absolutely fixes the offline file problem with windows 7.... and needs to be fixed!
amac27
Aspirant
Nov 09, 2011
can you try the microsoft synctoy 2.1
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... x?id=15155
BMach
Aspirant
Nov 09, 2011
My setup is still working. I am however afraid to touch the system (notebook Windows 7 and NAS) just in case it breaks. I have no confidence that I could get it to work again

It would be nice to know there was a way to get it up and running again.
mackeyuk
Aspirant
Dec 06, 2011
I love my NVX and it has been working fine since I tried to move my business files from my laptop to my nas then enable offline files on my windows 7 pro laptop and boooom! I find myself on this forum looking for a solution. Come on netgear get your act together, the ready nas is a premium product when compared to other devices and users expect this functionality to work!
chirpa
Luminary
Dec 06, 2011
Melach wrote:
How can you make this persist across reboots? Whenever I reboot my NAS the smb.conf file is reset

You shouldn't be editing that file directly. If you want the settings to survive across firmware updates, save your settings in /etc/frontview/samba/addons/addons.conf. You don't need to use the [global] header in here, any values set in this file will be included in the smb.conf [global] section.
chirpa
Luminary
Dec 06, 2011
For those that don't want to edit that file (via enabling SSH, etc), you can try this (untested) add-on: http://www.readynas.com/download/addons ... .1-x86.bin

It will add the lines as specified in viewtopic.php?p=296806#p296806 and restart the CIFS service.
mackeyuk
Aspirant
Dec 06, 2011
I installed the addon, but the problem is still here. Are there options to enable the addon after installing it?

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Windows 7 and Offline files STILL not working.

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