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ChristineStack's avatar
ChristineStack
Steel Contributor
Jul 28, 2017

Deleted files/folders reappear as they are synced back online from client OneDrive

We are heading towards the end of a big push to get all files in OneDrive or SharePoint.  The Finance department (VIPs) are getting very frustrated with deleted files/folders reappearing as they are ...
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Gocloudaccess's avatar
Gocloudaccess
Copper Contributor
Jul 22, 2021
So I was just brought in to consult at a client experiencing this issue using Sync in SharePoint online ( Which is basically One drive for a SharePoint Library). I had run into something similar on SharePoint 2013 on prem a few years back. I was able to resolve this by the following:
When folders were renamed they created duplicate and when they were deleted they would re-appear. By combing through the files we discovered that users had selected Check Out and Open when using Adobe to open PDFs, so going through all the files as an admin and discarding the check out that were left open by Adobe , we were then able to delete the folders and /or rename them. Once we had the cause, we created a powershell script to find the files and check them in. There were thousands. To stop this from happening going forward we implemented registry changes to disable Adobe SharePoint features via Group Policy. A quick first step is to educate the users to NOT click Check out and Open but instead Just Click Open. You can google the reg edits needed to disable Adobe SharePoint feature, this is a super frustrating issue so I hope this helps someone.
  • Pawel Kowalski's avatar
    Pawel Kowalski
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 22, 2021

    Thanks for posting your solution. Unfortunately this isn't what's happening to us. I'm finding that running chkdsk /r /f on the computers recreating the folders seems to fix it since there is a reparse error on the drive and OneDrive can't delete the folder off user's computer when it's deleted on SharePoint (so with it's infinite wisdom recreates the folder on SharePoint).

    This is an ugly solution as it's happening all the freaking time. Microsoft support continues to tell me this isn't their issue and only way they'll help is if I can figure out how to run fiddler on all computers 24/7 for months and capture all those logs for them (yup, I just need to figure out how to do the impossible and they'll get right on it I'm sure).

    • Rob Nicholson's avatar
      Rob Nicholson
      Brass Contributor
      Jul 22, 2021

      Hi Pawel - I think you're describing a different problem but it's in the same ballpark. I also classify it under the "Why I hate OneDrive" which was a long running thread hereabouts.

       

      This reparse error is something I've seen twice now in the last couple of days which suggests that's it's a new bug 😞 For my client, they are doing the following:

       

      1. Adding a shortcut to OneDrive (this itself is a new feature) from a SharePoint document library. This document library is about 70GBbig with 14,000 files
      2. Wait until the on-demand folder has synchronised - doesn't take that long as all it's downloading is the file placeholder
      3. Rename the shortcut...

      It is at that point that OneDrive throws a dicky fit! What happens is that you end up with a folder with the new name that only contains the folders - doesn't appear to be any files. This folder is not linked back to the document library. OneDrive then re-creates the shortcut link and downloads all the placeholders again.

       

      However, this renamed folder is in a really bad way and often has reparse errors. You can't delete it and have to resort to chkdsk /f /r - which of course requires a reboot AND takes a long time as it's scanning the entire disk for bad sectors.

      I really do despair about OneDrive sometimes... it's really the crappiest buggy bit of software in the entire M365 stack. And it's one of the most vital!! I work equally with Google Drive, Dropbox and even the open source Seafile system. Not of them are anyway near as bad as OneDrive.

      My theory, as a some-time software developer, is that the algorithms and metadata maintained by OneDrive is simply not as good as the alternative cloud storage systems.

  • econcepts's avatar
    econcepts
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 16, 2024

    GocloudaccessI wonder if the same thing happens in office365. I have not had the problem since I disabled connected features in word. Well, now I am on nextcloud and will never have that particular problem again.

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