Behavior of Roaming Profiles and Folder Redirection

Question

Environment

We are using roaming profiles and folder redirection in a domain environment.

At shutdown, local profiles are deleted using Delprof2.

At logon, the profile is downloaded every time by configuration.

Issue

On Windows 11 devices, users are logging in with a temporary profile.

Actions Taken

Deleted the user profile

• Immediately after deletion (possibly when a profile is created locally?), login is successful without delay.

However, after shutting down the device and attempting to log in again, the user is logged in with a temporary profile.

Details

After checking the Event Viewer, the following errors were observed:

00:09:14

“Windows cannot copy file ?\UNC<user profile path><username>.V6\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows PowerShell\Windows PowerShell.lnk to ?\C:\Users<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows PowerShell\Windows PowerShell.lnk. This problem may be caused by network issues or insufficient security permissions. Details - The specified network name is no longer available.” Source: User Profile General, Event ID: 1509

00:09:15

“Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes made to this profile will be lost when you log off.” Source: User Profile Service, Event ID: 1511

00:10:25

“Failed to apply policy and redirect folder 'RoamingAppData' to '<folder redirection path><username>\AppData\Roaming'. Redirected options = 0x80001021 The following error occurred: ‘Failed to copy files from "C:\Users\TEMP.<domain>\AppData\Roaming" to "<folder redirection path><username>\AppData\Roaming". One or more files in either the source or destination folder may have fully qualified file names longer than 256 characters.’ Details: “The copy function cannot be used.” Source: Folder Redirection, Event ID: 502

It is assumed that the profile fails to load due to copy failure, resulting in the use of a temporary profile.

Question

AppData (Roaming) is configured to use folder redirection, and the corresponding path does not exist within the user profile folder.

Is it possible to explicitly configure a GPO policy or setting to prioritize the use of folder redirection for accounts using roaming profiles?

Answer 1

Hi MC,

HAve a look at your GPOs for these settings (Note: GPResult.exe, runs as admin, and, in the users' context may help - e.g. gpresult.exe /h:gpresult.html)

You may have to experminet a little to get the result you want.

Also note that the "logon experience" for the users will be slower - especially if they have large roaming profiles. You may get complaints that 'logon is (too) slow'.

Regards,