Archive for the ‘fix’ Category

Another Fix for OneDrive / SkyDrive When Resetting and File Permissions Fixes Fail

Posted: January 8, 2015 in fix, Microsoft, OneDrive, SkyDrive, tip, Windows 8
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

I’ve discussed at length how to fix SkyDrive sync issues. Check out Another possible solution for OneDrive / SkyDrive sync issues and Possible OneDrive / SkyDrive sync fix for Windows 8. I have found that sometimes even resetting SkyDrive doesn’t fix the problem. Microsoft will charge you for a brute force approach, but I figured out one more option if nothing you’ve tried has started syncing back up again. Before you follow these steps, try the other two – this is a last ditch resort!

1. Make sure all other desktop and “modern” applications are NOT running. Only File Explorer should be running. Word, Chrome, whatever – they should all be closed.

2. Press Windows Key + X, select Command Prompt (Admin), and the Windows command prompt should appear.

3. Make sure the OneDrive app isn’t running – right-click it and select Close if you see it in the taskbar.

4. Type skydrive /shutdown

5. Wait a minute.

6. Right-click the task bar and select Task Manager.

7. Keep trying to end the OneDrive Sync Engine process until it disappears, as shown in the figure below. This may take a few tries.

image

8. Open the following folder:
C:\Users\your user account name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\SkyDrive\settings
and you’ll see something like the figure below:

image

9. Delete all the files except for ClientPolicy.ini and global.ini.

10. Once they have been deleted, type the following: shutdown -r -t 0

11. Your computer should restart.

12. Log back in and your files should start resyncing. You’ll probably see results within a few hours. This will depend on the total number of files you have on OneDrive. You’ll also see downloads.txt and another funky-looking file start growing in size. If you see that, you know things are working, and OneDrive has started rebuilding everything.

Another possible solution for SkyDrive sync issues

Posted: January 29, 2014 in fix, SkyDrive, tip, Windows, Windows 8
Tags: ,
2

In an earlier post, I pointed to permissions issues causing SkyDrive to stop syncing. I found another solution that also appears to have worked, causing SkyDrive to sync again. Try moving your SkyDrive folder to another location, such as another drive, an SD card you never remove, or other similar area. I suggest a permanent location, not one you unplug and might forget to re-attach Smile I don’t know how long my fix will last this time, but try it and let me know.

Here’s how you change locations:

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click SkyDrive and select Properties.

image

2. When SkyDrive Properties appears, select the Location tab and click Move.

image

Note: In my example, I’ve already moved the folder. In yours, you will probably see c:\Users\username\SkyDrive

3. Choose the folder to move your files to. I called mine Auri’s SkyDrive and put it on my M: drive. Make sure you have plenty of room for your files! This will not trigger a download of all your files. However, you want to have enough room that the copy of existing files doesn’t fail.

4. Click Apply and wait a while. The window may freeze while Windows does its work. On a side note, if any Microsoft engineers are listening, this would be a great place to enhance the user experience. For example, a please wait indicator.

5. Once Windows has copied all the files to the new location, wait a while for Windows to sync, maybe a day. By then, your files may be back in sync and all will be good in the world.

Good luck!

-Auri

Possible SkyDrive Sync Fix for Windows 8.1

Posted: January 8, 2014 in fix, Microsoft, OneDrive, SkyDrive, Windows, Windows 8
Tags:
95

There’s no doubt about it – SkyDrive (now OneDrive) is broken in Windows 8.1. At some point, your files may stop syncing, and Windows simply will not let you know. It happened to me across all devices I had upgraded from 8.0 to 8.1. Many forum posts: here, here, here, and here, are complaining about the problem. The real issue? Nobody knows. Microsoft hasn’t been helpful, either, turning a deaf ear to consumer complaints, and offering no advice in their forums other than to run their SkyDrive troubleshooter. What does that do? It simply restarts the SkyDrive service most of the time, which doesn’t solve the problem.

Researching the issue a bit more, I noticed in the File Manager event log, a message of “Error message: Offline availability: found one item with an empty resourceId, aborting”. That sounded like a permissions/access issue may be causing a file to be unreadable. This lead me to try resetting all the permissions on the SkyDrive folder. Guess what? That process caused other pop-ups to appear. Pop-ups with error messages about file permissions being unable to be changed or accessed. Aha! Progress! If those files can’t be read by SkyDrive’s sync tool, maybe that’s holding up all my syncing!

By moving out those files above and restarting the SkyDrive services, my sync is working again! I don’t know how long this will last, but I hope the steps below will help you troubleshoot the issue on your end.

1. Open Explorer and right-click your SkyDrive folder and select Properties.

image

2. Click Security, then Advanced, and you should see something similar to the dialog below. Make sure SYSTEM, Administrators, and your own user name all have Full control.

image

3. Check the box Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permissions from this object and click Apply.

4. Make note of any files on which you receive errors so you can find them and move them out of the SkyDrive folder to somewhere else. This appears to be what was tripping things up for SkyDrive on my end.

5. Move the files from Step 4 to a folder outside of SkyDrive. I zipped these up and kept that ZIP folder in SkyDrive. I have not yet found the reason for those files to have issues. It’s possible setting their permissions again may fix it. My guess is some files may have domain credentials attached that may cause trouble, since I sync with my work PC.

6. Open an elevated command prompt by pressing Windows + X and selecting Command Prompt (Admin).

image

7. Shut down SkyDrive by typing skydrive /shutdown in c:\windows\system32. You should be starting in c:\windows\system32, but if not, you can type cd “c:\windows\system32” to get there. Wait two minutes.

8. Start up SkyDrive by typing skydrive from that same prompt, this time without the /shutdown command, and wait two minutes. Launch the SkyDrive app from the Start menu as well, just to make sure everything’s kickstarted. Check to see if the SkyDrive Sync Engine Host process is running in Task Manager. You can press Control + Shift + Escape to bring up Task Manager, sort by name, and find SkyDrive Sync Engine Host under Processes. If the SkyDrive process doesn’t launch after a couple minutes, try restarting your machine.

image

9. You’ll see a lot of disk activity while SkyDrive appears to scan your files and folders all over again. Depending on the number of files and folders you have to sync, this could take a while.

10. Check again in a few hours and see if your SkyDrive folder online appears to properly match with your machine. If it does, then my fix worked.

Good luck!

Best,

-Auri

SkyDrive Bug: Deleting Items fills Recycle Bin on ALL Connected Devices

Posted: December 28, 2013 in Apps, fix, Operating Systems, SkyDrive, tablet, Windows 8
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

I’ve posted this in Microsoft’s forums, but in case anyone else is running into this issue, I’d like to know…

Situation:

– I have a home security camera. All motion detected photos are saved to a folder on a home machine, located in my local SkyDrive folder. I forgot to clean up this folder, so there were hundreds of thousands (~90 gigs) of files in the individual daily folders in this folder.

– On SkyDrive.com, to speed up the delete process, I deleted all folders I no longer wanted. Remember, this is 90 gigs or so. I figured this would delete those files from my home machine.

– Upon deletion, SkyDrive started copying all those deleted files to *every connected device’s Recycle Bin*, including my Windows tablet with its scant 32 gig drive!!!

– Now all my machines’ primary drives are filling up due to the Recycle Bin being filled by SkyDrive. This is especially troubling on the tablet, which is crashing often due to being out of space as it fills up every 30 mins or so, syncing over WiFi. No, I don’t have SkyDrive set to sync any folders to that device.

– All machines are running Windows 8.1. The tablet came with 8.1, and the desktops and laptop were upgraded to 8.1 from 8.0.

Bug:

– If a file is deleted on SkyDrive, it should not immediately be transferred to all connected devices. This is especially true for tablets.

Solutions / Workarounds:

– None known.

– Feature request possibility: This should be a feature that can be enabled or disabled, and disabled by default.

– Fix: Microsoft should disable the copying of deleted files to all connected devices, and come up with a better solution for handling this scenario.

I’m looking forward to feedback, as this has caused tremendous amounts of trouble in my ability to use Windows devices. It’s almost pointless to have a Windows tablet, since my online SkyDrive activity is not cognisent (sp?) of what device types to which its connected.

Thanks,

-Auri

Having WiFi issues with Dell Venue Pro 8? Uninstall Microsoft Patch KB2887595 and KB2903939

Posted: December 9, 2013 in Computers and Internet, Dell, fix, Operating Systems, tablet, Venue Pro, WiFi, Windows, Windows 8
Tags: , , , , , ,
65

UPDATE (13-Dec-2013): Microsoft has a fix: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-networking/dell-venue-pro-loses-wireless-connection-after/bc8a1426-fdb8-466d-b074-c80a06e70d76 and direct link to update http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40755

UPDATE (10-Dec-2013): Updated to include fix for WiFi problems caused by latest Patch Tuesday installs.

My WiFi stopped working on my Dell Venue Pro 8. Uninstalling Microsoft Updates KB2887595 and KB2903939 fixed the problem.

TIP: After uninstalling these updates, you can go back to Windows Update via the method below, scan for updates, then right-click the updates and select Hide this Update so Windows doesn’t repeatedly try to reinstall it.

To do this:

1. On the Start menu, swipe down to All Applications

2. Scroll all the way right and tap Control Panel

3. When Control Panel appears on the desktop, search for Windows Update by typing in the search box, and tap it

4. On the left pane there will be an option for View Installed Updates. Tap it.

5. Find Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2887595) and tap it, then tap Uninstall. If you also have update KB2903939, don’t restart yet. Otherwise, skip to step 7.

6. Find Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2903939) and tap it, then tap Uninstall.

7. Restart.

8. Your WiFi should be working again.