Windows 8.1 Skydrive not synchronising

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#964527 10-Jan-2014 13:57

Not something else locking access to those files?

AV or something?

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#964529 10-Jan-2014 13:58

freitasm: Not if you're trying to use only Modern UI apps which will only use the Skydrive file picker - things such as Project Siena for example (which is exactly where I noticed this happening first time, then lead me to the screenshots above).

you could try posting this in the SkyDrive support forums, since I'm only here in my personal spare time

or you could email me your SkyDrive logs

Can you send the SkyDrive logs by zip’ing up the contents of %localappdata%\microsoft\Windows\SkyDrive?

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#964531 10-Jan-2014 14:00

Nope. Disabled AV (for access to files), disabled firewall (for remote access to Skydrive server), tried different networks (in case something blocking access to remote servers could prevent access to offline files), ran the Skydrive troubleshooter (which found nothing wrong)...

Files are there and accessible via Windows Explorer. Just Skydrive that has some problem with them.

Well, refreshing tonight when back home.

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#964534 10-Jan-2014 14:03

nathan:
freitasm: Not if you're trying to use only Modern UI apps which will only use the Skydrive file picker - things such as Project Siena for example (which is exactly where I noticed this happening first time, then lead me to the screenshots above).

you could try posting this in the SkyDrive support forums, since I'm only here in my personal spare time

Nathan, thanks for the suggestion but my experience in many years with Microsoft support forums is that there's never a reply there that actually solves a problem. Completely opposite of my experience with more specific sites, such as IIS.net which is great.

nathan: or you could email me your SkyDrive logs

Can you send the SkyDrive logs by zip’ing up the contents of %localappdata%\microsoft\Windows\SkyDrive?

Will package them - don't have a zip utility on this tablet so need to copy somewhere else first.

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#964536 10-Jan-2014 14:03

what is the exact error message in the Modern UI file picker?

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#964537 10-Jan-2014 14:05

freitasm:
nathan:
freitasm: Not if you're trying to use only Modern UI apps which will only use the Skydrive file picker - things such as Project Siena for example (which is exactly where I noticed this happening first time, then lead me to the screenshots above).

you could try posting this in the SkyDrive support forums, since I'm only here in my personal spare time

Nathan, thanks for the suggestion but my experience in many years with Microsoft support forums is that there's never a reply there that actually solves a problem. Completely opposite of my experience with more specific sites, such as IIS.net which is great.

nathan: or you could email me your SkyDrive logs

Can you send the SkyDrive logs by zip’ing up the contents of %localappdata%\microsoft\Windows\SkyDrive?

Will package them - don't have a zip utility on this tablet so need to copy somewhere else first.

ZIP is built in

right click, send to, compressed (zipped) folder

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#964545 10-Jan-2014 14:13

nathan: what is the exact error message in the Modern UI file picker?

The file picker error:

The other messages:

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#964546 10-Jan-2014 14:13

On the subject of bugs with Skydrive I found an irreversible bug on my new installation of Windows 8.1 x64 for my Laptop.

Whatever you do, don't change the Skydrive storage "Location" (right click, Properties, Location) to your Desktop. Even if you try to move it away, it breaks something either in the registry or hidden ntfs links and your Desktop remains the Skydrive location symbolically forever.

I originally tested this because I wanted to synchronize my Skydrive folders and files to my Desktop view for my laptop and Surface as it is always the first place most accessible from both devices. Turns out, that was a really bad idea. I later changed location to "C:/SkyDrive" but even though the files moved and appeared there, any changes to files and folders continued to update the Desktop view. If I deleted a file from the desktop it deleted it from C:/SkyDrive.

I probably mistakenly created a symbolic link or junction loop or something.

It was really broken so I had to revert back to a back up I had made hours earlier (thankfully) and everything is fine now.

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#964552 10-Jan-2014 14:20

freitasm:
nathan: what is the exact error message in the Modern UI file picker?

The file picker error:

The other messages:

cheers, I'll wait till I get the logs before I forward this onto the right peeps

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#964553 10-Jan-2014 14:21

universenz: On the subject of bugs with Skydrive I found an irreversible bug on my new installation of Windows 8.1 x64 for my Laptop.

Whatever you do, don't change the Skydrive storage "Location" (right click, Properties, Location) to your Desktop. Even if you try to move it away, it breaks something either in the registry or hidden ntfs links and your Desktop remains the Skydrive location symbolically forever.

I originally tested this because I wanted to synchronize my Skydrive folders and files to my Desktop view for my laptop and Surface as it is always the first place most accessible from both devices. Turns out, that was a really bad idea. I later changed location to "C:/SkyDrive" but even though the files moved and appeared there, any changes to files and folders continued to update the Desktop view. If I deleted a file from the desktop it deleted it from C:/SkyDrive.

I probably mistakenly created a symbolic link or junction loop or something.

It was really broken so I had to revert back to a back up I had made hours earlier (thankfully) and everything is fine now.

thanks for the feedback, when you say backup, did you have to restore your OS image?

universenz

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#964579 10-Jan-2014 14:48

nathan:
universenz: On the subject of bugs with Skydrive I found an irreversible bug on my new installation of Windows 8.1 x64 for my Laptop.

Whatever you do, don't change the Skydrive storage "Location" (right click, Properties, Location) to your Desktop. Even if you try to move it away, it breaks something either in the registry or hidden ntfs links and your Desktop remains the Skydrive location symbolically forever.

I originally tested this because I wanted to synchronize my Skydrive folders and files to my Desktop view for my laptop and Surface as it is always the first place most accessible from both devices. Turns out, that was a really bad idea. I later changed location to "C:/SkyDrive" but even though the files moved and appeared there, any changes to files and folders continued to update the Desktop view. If I deleted a file from the desktop it deleted it from C:/SkyDrive.

I probably mistakenly created a symbolic link or junction loop or something.

It was really broken so I had to revert back to a back up I had made hours earlier (thankfully) and everything is fine now.

thanks for the feedback, when you say backup, did you have to restore your OS image?

Yes, full system restore from a backup on WHS 2011.

My original statement makes it sound as if I intentionally created a symbolic loop, but what I actually meant was: I didn't consider that Skydrive may be using symlinks (I just assumed it worked like dropbox) so I suspect the Desktop is actually a symlink too, and by mistakenly setting Skydrive to a location which was already a symbolic link, I may have created some weird loop.

I'm not game enough to test / reproduce it again though!

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#965978 13-Jan-2014 10:52

After these errors I decided to refresh the tablet. First thing: a refresh brings it back to Windows 8... So the update to Windows 8.1 is gone and the upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro is gone.

Refreshed to Windows 8, updated to Windows 8.1. All udpates installed.

Moved the Skydrive folder to the microSD (with Skydrive in offline mode only). Shutdown the tablet, insert the microSD on my laptop and copy all 30GB of My Documents and Pictures to the Skydrive folders. Inserted back on the tablet and turned on the option "Access all files offline".

Instead of Skydrive just going through the files, doing a checksum and deciding "oh this is the same file already in the cloud" it is uploading those files. All 30GB of files.

This is dumb. It should really realise these files are in the local storage, are the same files, so nothing to do.

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#966000 13-Jan-2014 11:10

by design Windows 8.1 upgraded from Windows 8 doesn't upgrade the recovery partition so when you do a PC Reset you're back to your factory partition

Windows RT does upgrade the recovery partition from 8.0 to 8.1

It is possible to upgrade the PC Reset partition yourself, I'll dig up some docs and send them your way

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#966006 13-Jan-2014 11:12

That would be great, thanks. Would like upgrading it to avoid repeating all this if needed be...

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#966050 13-Jan-2014 11:47

Are those recovery partition upgrade docs publicly available? I have searched for info on this and haven't been able to find anything. Nice to not have to reinstall the update if the recovery is used.....

Cheers
Matt.

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