Disable Folder redirection policy

Question

I have a large Hospital organization with 1000 plus end users that is going to migrate to OneDrive. Currently they are using folder redirection. After the migration they want to disable this. Goal is to leave the files in the destination folder from the redirection and prevent the files from being downloaded back to the client machines. They are running into the following problems per testing.

"When we tested the removal of this policy, the files from the ‘%USERNAME%\Desktop’ were copied locally to C:\%USERNAME%\Desktop on next login. If we change the bottom setting to “Leave the folder in the new location when policy is removed”, the file redirection (Windows Explorer link) remains active."

Based on this documentation, this is expected. Best Practices for Folder Redirection in User Data and Settings Management | Microsoft Learn

"The problem with enabling “Leave the folder in the new location when policy is removed” is that the redirected folders remain redirected (e.g. Desktop is still redirected to our server share Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop), when we would like to break/remove that redirection once we switch to OneDrive. The registry entry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders) remains redirected as well, from what I remember."

Anyone run into this before? How can you disable the redirection, prevent the files copying locally, and have the folders and files no longer redirected?

Answer 1

So the customer doesn't want the data copied back locally. They feel this will drag their network down because of the volume of files that would be copied back locally. They want to avoid this impact to the network.

Can the customer not just migrate to OneDrive from the server location. Once that is completed, disable the redirect in a way that the files don't go back to the local computer while at the same time permanently removing the redirect so that it no longer will be in place after.

Thanks

Answer 2

Hello anonymous user,

Thank you for posting here.

As I understand, we should disable /remove the folder redirection policy first, that is we should redirect back our redirected folder to the local userprofile location when the policy is removed.

Then migrate /redirect/ move Windows known folders to OneDrive.

For more information we can refer to link below.
Redirect and move Windows known folders to OneDrive
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/redirect-known-folders

Tip: The sequence of operations is not to migrate to Onedrive first, and then disable the folder redirection policy.

Hope the inofrmation above is helpful.

Should you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

Answer 3

Hello anonymous user,

Thank you for your update.

Q: Can the customer not just migrate to OneDrive from the server location.
A: From an AD perspective and the link below, the customer can not just migrate to OneDrive from the server location.

Redirect and move Windows known folders to OneDrive
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/redirect-known-folders

I suggest you can open a new post by selecting tag related to Onedrive, you can ask experts from Onedrive team for further help and consult them if your customer can just migrate to OneDrive from the server location.

Hope the information above is helpful.

Should you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

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If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Answer 4

Know folder types for ODB are the My Documents, Pictures and Desktop folders. They have nothing to do with the folder redirection I"m talking about.

I just want to know if I have a folder on my computer that is redirected to a server share, how do I disable that redirection (that was deployed via GPO) without it copying the files back to the local drive AND delete the redirection from existence. Disabling the policy leaves the redirection in place. I don't want that.

Answer 5

Hello anonymous user,

Thank you for your update.

Disable that redirection, you can have two options as below, you do not want the second one, you can select the first one.

Should you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

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If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.