Windows 10 Library is not showing all files it is pointing to

[James Anning]

A while back, I set up a library, on this PC (win 10 pro) to another PC on my network (win 8.1 enterprise)

http://www.aanning.com/ajissues/Windows_errors/Grey_X_explorer/ss1.jpg

As can be seen I have several libraries, several pointing to the same PC. This is where it gets fuzzy,
because I do not remember exactly what I did. I believe I set up some sort of off line sharing...but not sure.

This is when the issues began. If I go into explorer on this PC (one where librarys were set up), I no longer
see all directories/files on the other PC.

http://www.aanning.com/ajissues/Windows_errors/Grey_X_explorer/ss2.jpg

Sometimes, when I go to the Drive "Y" while on the PC where librarys are set up (Left side in above ss2.jpg)
Instead of only seeing 2 directory, I see all the directory but, they have a grey X in the folder icon.
At the moment, this is not occurring, it may be because I preformed the below steps an hour ago:

--from:
Gray "X" on network share folder icon - Windows 7 Help Forums

Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.
Locate the following registry subkey, and then right-click it: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC
Point to New, and then click Key.
Type Parameters in the box.
Right-click Parameters, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit)Value.
Type FormatDatabase, and then press ENTER.
Right-click FormatDatabase, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer

After the reboot, the grey X were still there, however, they are now gone, but I only see 2 of 197 directory.
i have gone in and deleted the "FormatDatabase" key I had just made.

If I reboot the PC where the files are located (where library points)...sometimes all is well..for a while,
then the grey X appear and all of the above described returns. This occurs even if I do nothing on either PC.

Please advise

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see the Gray-X's that you are talking about in any of your screenshots.

Regardless of that, prior to setting up your Libraries between the W10 and W8.1 machines, did you remember to setup Homegroups Networking? That's really a must, and especially with library folders which are controlled by Homegroups; so if you choose not to use Homegroups, you have to go back to manual library folder management which is much like it was back in W98 and XP. Quite a pain. Though a few folks I've helped with similar problems still prefer the old way of doing things even though it took them months or even years to get all their library folders to work correctly between multiple PCs on a Home LAN.

If the answer to my Homegroups question is no; I suggest you backup all your Library folders on both your 2 PCs, and strip out ALL OF YOUR EXISTING NETWORK SHARES AND START OVER ONCE YOU SETUP HOMEGROUPS. I also recommend that you setup your Homegroup on your W8.1 machine, and add the W10 PC to that Homegroup (use the same Homegroup password).

I could go on and on about the where and why of this and if you search Homegroups here on WF you'll run across a few of them where the details of that discussion lives. Most of the folks here are not looking for an explanation, rather a quick solution. With the number of Library folders you have, I doubt any solution will be short; but the Homegroup method could save you days or weeks.

Lastly, I would also consider backing up all your Personal Data on both PCs to external media if you haven't already done so, as mucking about with rebuilding your Home Network can often lead to unpredictable results which in turn can lead to irretrievable data loss!

Oh, and if you DID answer Yes to the Homegroups question, the solution is nearly the same; backup all your data, library folders to external media, and rip out all your library folders and the Homegroups and start over from scratch.

Let us know how it goes.
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[James Anning]

Right, the Grey "X" on the icons is random, Its not currently doing it, so no screen shot. I do not have Homegroups....I don't like it..and don't really want to use it. I've had all these libraries for years with no issues, set them up one time...never have to touch them again. Something that I did or has happened recently has caused this to happen, I just need to fix that or undo what I did. Why are all of my folders not showing up?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

I see; thanks for your reply back. You could use your Camera-phone or borrow one from a friend or family-member and E-mail the photo to yourself, and then upload for us to look at. As I've never seen this particular phenomenom, it's possible one of my colleagues here may have and can provide a more succinct solution which would allow you to bypass my rip-it-out-and-start-over approach. That's up to you; but, after doing tech support for 37 years it's really difficult to pinpoint a solution to your problem without seeing it. This is very similar when Customers give me a computer that gets a Blue Screen or Black & White screen with an error message but they couldn't be bothered with writing it down, or even think to do so. At that point, I just usually take the computer back to my workshop and attempt to reproduce the problem. If I cannot, I run hardware diagnostics and if the hardware is fine, I usually rebuild the PC with a hard drive and Windows reinstallation (after backing up all their data as is my recommendation to you. This usually produces a positive result; probably 95% of the time, as if it's a software problem such as Windows corruption, registry corruption, or a nasty spyware virus, this process eliminates it and allows me to get a clean Windows platform on which to reinstall their programs and data. One and done.

I understand that you don't like Homegroups, and prefer not to use them. Indeed I have Clients who will not use them, and make me perform workarounds such as network shares, shared library folders, NAS folders, or Media Storage sharing. In some cases it can be done, but of course due to the extra time and complexity involved I charge much more money to do it, if I decide to do it all. In most cases, I simply "no-bid" those jobs as most of my Customers who are on fixed income could never afford a several-hundred dollar networking bill to fix that kind of problem.

It's your computer and your issue to solve. We are here to provide sound expert advice. You now have that in my first Post to you above. I might suggest that you consider waiting a week or two and see if one of our Admins or other Colleagues might chime in with an easier solution as I mentioned to you. Then you could try their solution and maybe it will work for you, nothing could make me happier! [of course, having that screenshot or screengrab I mentioned, might facilitate you getting a quicker answer].

If that easier solution still fails, I might suggest that you consider cross-posting your question on some of the other Tech Forums out there such as Bleeping Computer or Microsoft Community Forum [both of which I also volunteer on]. You can even mention that it's a cross-post if you wish. This may help the folks on those forums to let them know this is a tough problem and we were unable to provide you with an easy solution. If you get no love from those forums, you might re-read my Post and consider the rip-it-out-and-start-over approach I propose.

In any case, if any of our solutions generates a solution for you, or even if you find a solution elsewhere on one of the other forums or on the Internet somewhere else, we'd certainly appreciate you taking a few minutes if you can and post that final solution back here to this thread to help others who run into your same problem.

Very best of luck to you,
<<<BBJ>>>
and Happy New Year.

 

[James Anning]

ok....you have REALLY lost me on this..."You could use your Camera-phone or borrow one from a friend or family-member and E-mail the photo to yourself, and then upload for us to look at."
1) Who doesn't have a camera phone?
2) What picture can I possibly take with ANY camera, that I could not do a print screen and save to .jpg?
3) I've already told you, the grey X is random, its not occurring "now"...and its just one facet of the issues (assuming this is what you want a picture of?)
4) Anything I could take a picture of?...I have already taken a screen shot. These are uploaded and exist at the links (which point to the JPG on my WEB server) I have provided

So......no offense, but......uhm....what are you talking about?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Sometimes, a screen capture will not get what you actually see on the screen. Yes, there are still dinosaurs who use an old flip-phone that does not have a Camera built-in. I have Customers with this situation, which is why I mentioned it. Your screenshots do NOT show the actual problem, which gets back to the point about us trying to fix a problem we cannot see or reproduce. Specifically I'm talking about the Grey-X on the folder icon.

As I said, if the problem you are seeing on your display is NOT one you can take a screenshot of or take a picture of with a smartphone camera, it's kinda hard to believe that something is actually happening (besides the loss of your files in the explorer window). A random occurrence to me, doesn't mean one that's invisible to the computer or a digital camera, right?

Besides this issue, which I couldn't be more clear on, what did you think of the rest of the information I provided to you about resolving your problem?

Best,
<<<BBJ>>>

 

[James Anning]

WOW!...is anyone else seeing this? OK you said > "Sometimes, a screen capture will not get what you actually see on the screen"
I want you to explain to me.......how the above statement...even remotely makes sense or could POSSIBLY be true? (This ought to be good!)

 

[Neemobeer]

James, that's easy if there is a hardware problem with the monitor a screen capture will not show that. Although I doubt that is the issue in this case.

 

[Neemobeer]

CSC is used only for branch cache and offline files, are you currently using that? If you are you can check for syncing issues in Control Panel > Sync Center. Normally this isn't on by default.

 

[James Anning]

OK....fixed it. In my original post I state > "This is where it gets fuzzy,because I do not remember exactly what I did. I believe I set up some sort of off line sharing...but not sure.
This is when the issues began. If I go into explorer on this PC (one where librarys were set up), I no longer
see all directories/files on the other PC."

The online sync stopped working, but had a partial sync (confusing me).....this is why I only saw a few files. I disabled "off llne data"...I do not need this anyway, as both PC stay on 24/7. Once that was off, I could not even see the drive anymore.
I checked and sure enough, Sharing was not on. Not sure how this got turned off...but, I turned it back on...all is well again.
I can see full files in the libraries and on the network again.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Glad you got it fixed! And neem explained quite well that if there are hardware issues within the Graphics channel, such as GPU card/chip, display/monitor driver, or the display monitor itself can all cause screenshot or screengrab software to fail to produce a WYSWIG image.

That's another reason I pressed you about creating this image which accurately reflected an item (the Grey-X's) you were seeing but could not produce on your uploaded images. This is the sort of thing that we have to read between the lines on and guess what you did or didn't do to your PC. It's often not easy, and you sounded irritated by the questions I was asking you--sorry if that was the case, but it's often necessary to nit-pick to get to the root of a User's problem when you can't see it in front of you and you can't touch it. If you don't believe that's true, try fixing a friend's PC who lives in another state or even another Country over the phone!

One other thing of interest for you; I never use the Offline mode in Windows due to inconsistencies in syncing of data in Windows explorer due to the b-node latency conundrum that has existed in all Microsoft networks going back to the mid-80s. To me, it's never worked particularly well, especially in corporate environments where I spent 35+ years networking. To add fuel to the fire, in W10 with the new multiple Account login feature (Local Login & Microsoft Account Login), file/folder reporting is extremely touchy, and if you are also using the built-in MS One-Drive, Google Drive, or Dropbox features, and you don't wait at least 30 min. after turning on your computer, you are not going to see copies of all your files in Standard Mode (Online) when viewing in Offline mode, and even longer if you are connecting to shared folders or server folders on your home network. And, if you are connecting to shared folders outside of your home, such as a web-extranet or via VPN connection, it can take even longer to get the files to show up in your Offline view. If you happen to have a complicated Home Network of multiple computers and mobile devices *some of my Customers have 27 devices on their LANs)*, this can be exasperating to say the least. Unless you are a professional computer engineer, programmer, or web-developer I stronger urge all my clients both Home and Business to stay away from using the Offline feature due to the above mentioned idiosyncrasies.

Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>