2

I recently setup some new computers (running Win8.1) for the staff here. These machines use folder redirection (as we always have) with Offline Files sync. I have not traditionally used Offline Files but I've turned it on to give a bit of extra resiliency and performance while working with their files.

Today it was brought to my attention by someone that they cannot rename a file if they change the letter case only. When they do this they are shown a popup that says they need to get permission from their selves to perform the action. Their choices are Try Again and Cancel.

For example, the following will fail:

filename.txt --> FILENAME.txt

But the following will succeed:

filename.txt --> xFILENAME.txt --> FILENAME.txt

My files are being redirected to the same fileshare* by the same group policy but I am not using Offline Files and I do not experience this problem.

I've checked with another user that is setup like the original and they also experience this problem.

If this is a known bug my I have not been able to find an answer.

* The fileshare is running on Windows Server 2012 with deduplication enabled on the volume.
Chris76786777
  • 979
  • 5
  • 21
  • 35
  • FWIW, I see the same behavior on an off-line file. – uSlackr May 02 '14 at 20:44
  • What do you mean off-line file? A normal file that is not redirected and not synced locally by Offline Files? – Chris76786777 May 02 '14 at 22:12
  • @idon'twearsuits Yes, that's what he means. This is a problem with Windows going back to the FAT-filesystem days, and I *assume* it is still an issue because of how Windows handles FAT-compatibility. Not related to offline-files or folder-redirection. I recall having some documentation from a support KB about this somewhere... I'll try to dig it up. – HopelessN00b May 03 '14 at 00:09
  • @HopelessN00bGeniusofnetwork Interesting... I don't think I've ever seen this before in all my years doing this. – Chris76786777 May 03 '14 at 03:04
  • Also happens with Windows 7 Pro x64 clients with Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 servers. GPO has Documents folder redirected to be on the server and a local offline cached copy is on the client machine which does bidirectional sync with the server. – BeowulfNode42 Sep 24 '14 at 05:34

1 Answers1

2

For Windows Vista and Windows 7 this is a known 'feature' according to the Microsoft KB953945, with the only 'resolution' is to work around the problem by temporarily renaming the file to something else first.

From the above article the resolution is

To work around this issue, rename the file to another name, and then rename back with the changed letter case.

For example, rename TEXT.txt to word.txt, and then rename word.txt to text.txt.

Perhaps with Windows 8, 8.1, 2012, 2012R2 this 'feature' has been included in these newer releases too.

BeowulfNode42
  • 2,615
  • 2
  • 19
  • 32