My Documents folder redirection not working after file server migration

I used the excellent Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit to migrate files to our new file server on the weekend. However, although the user home folders are correctly being mapped to the H: drive, by using this setting in user properties:

the ‘Documents folder redirection’ GPO setting is not updating ‘My Documents’ to the new file server location.

Here are the current settings for ‘GPO > User Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Folder Redirection > Documents’:

By Using the ‘Group Policy Results Wizard’ on an affected computer/user, we can troubleshoot this issue.

In this case, there is an exclamation mark next to ‘Component Status’ in the ‘Summary Tab’:

This gives us a clue, but we’ll keep looking.

Here’s the ‘Settings Tab’:

Still not enough information to take action really, but there are 2 cheeky errors showing in the ‘Policy Events Tab’:

The first error message isn’t too useful:

but the second message shows more promise:

It turns out that the error is occurring because the ‘Move the contents of Documents to the new location’ setting is enabled in the Folder Redirection GPO below:

One of the options when using the Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit is to stop sharing the source file server shares once the files have been copied to the target file server. I selected this as I didn’t want users updating files on the old share, however, as ‘\\wsmdc01\home\username’ was no longer readable on the network, the Folder Redirection GPO was failing.

Simply unticking the ‘Move the contents of Documents to the new location’ option resolves the issue. The ‘My Documents’ folder now correctly maps to the users’ H: drive.

Comments

  1. Denira says

    your content made me want to read more and more. congratulations for the work. thanks!

  2. I can’t tell you how helpful this was. I have dealt on and off with this issue for years, every time I had to move or upgrade a file server. I have searched over the years and come up with workarounds to “fix” the broken re-direction but never stumbled upon a simple explanation of what is, as you show, a simple fix. Mea Culpa, in that it was a silly oversight on my part and immediately obvious once you pointed it out. But I’ve never seen ANYONE else point it out. This should, at the very least, be documented in a Microsoft KB article based on the number of queries I found on the Internet indicating how many people run into the same issue time and time again.

    I will buy you a case of beer in whatever “next life” we IT people are condemned to.

    • I know exactly what you mean Chris. It’s so frustrating when you find out simple solutions to BIG problems you face. I think software programmers need to address this by explaining outcomes during a given task. Thankfully, I’m seeing this happen with newer versions of certain software. Usability is paramount!

      Anyway, glad to hear it helped you.

  3. Working all night on this problem, I figured it was probably some obscure solution like this. Google is a friend indeed.
    Many thanks, you just save me a long and exhausting day in the office tomorrow !

  4. This did the trick for me as well. Thanks for your help…it’s always the little things!