Fun with redirected folders

[HCHTech]

We have a client (about a dozen employees) that has a NAS they use as a server. So no domain. We created user directories on the NAS for each person, and we redirect the local Desktop & Documents folders there. This gets the most important data centrally located where it can be easily backed up. This has worked surprisingly well in the 3 years we have done their service. They got all new computers last week and we have been installing them this week. I learned a couple of things about redirected folders in the process:

• Ninite installers will not work if your Desktop folder is redirected. Not sure why - the thing downloads to the downloads folder, which is local, and is run from there. They all error out with a "I can't find something" error. If you put the desktop folder back in it's original location, then they all work fine.
• One workstation serves as their Quickbooks server. They have 5 licenses of Quickbooks Desktop Premier 2020. Quickbooks installs and runs correctly, but you cannot share the data folder in Quickbooks Database Server Manager if the Desktop folder is redirected. You get an "Unable to resolve the root folder" error when you try to browse for the data folder to scan. This error unfortunately is not elaborated on in any my Google searches. Again, not sure why this is since the folder being shared is local, and access to that folder works just fine from other computers. Intuit level 2 support also doesn't know about this error. If you put the Desktop folder back in it's default location, you can do the folder scan fine and then multi-user access works as desired. Further....once this is done, you can re-redirect the Desktop folder back to the network location and the sharing still works.

It may be that there is something more-clever to solve these related problems when you use redirected folders, but I suspect there isn't. I suspect it's just bad programming that hard-codes the default location for things without contemplating that anyone would take advantage of redirected folders.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn the solution to the Ninite problem before I ran into the Quickbooks problem, so I wasted a few hours today beating my head against that particular wall. Fun times.

 

[Markverhyden]

We have a client (about a dozen employees) that has a NAS they use as a server.

• One workstation serves as their Quickbooks server. They have 5 licenses of Quickbooks Desktop Premier 2020. Quickbooks installs and runs correctly, but you cannot share the data folder in Quickbooks Database Server Manager if the Desktop folder is redirected. You get an "Unable to resolve the root folder" error when you try to browse for the data folder to scan. This error unfortunately is not elaborated on in any my Google searches. Again, not sure why this is since the folder being shared is local, and access to that folder works just fine from other computers. Intuit level 2 support also doesn't know about this error. If you put the Desktop folder back in it's default location, you can do the folder scan fine and then multi-user access works as desired. Further....once this is done, you can re-redirect the Desktop folder back to the network location and the sharing still works.

As I understand it QB is looking for a MS filesystem during installation and setup. As in FAT32 or NTFS. In my experience if it doesn't see that then it'll choke. Since virtually every NAS on the market is a *nix running with SMB they'll fail. To be honest I was surprised you got it to work after setting it up natively and then doing the redirect again. If it was me I'd stick the company file(s) back on the workstation and then focus on getting backups over. As soon as there is a problem with networking I'd venture a guess File Doctor will fail because of the redirect.

 

[putz]

We have a client (about a dozen employees) that has a NAS they use as a server. So no domain. We created user directories on the NAS for each person, and we redirect the local Desktop & Documents folders there. This gets the most important data centrally located where it can be easily backed up. This has worked surprisingly well in the 3 years we have done their service. They got all new computers last week and we have been installing them this week. I learned a couple of things about redirected folders in the process:

• Ninite installers will not work if your Desktop folder is redirected. Not sure why - the thing downloads to the downloads folder, which is local, and is run from there. They all error out with a "I can't find something" error. If you put the desktop folder back in it's original location, then they all work fine.
• One workstation serves as their Quickbooks server. They have 5 licenses of Quickbooks Desktop Premier 2020. Quickbooks installs and runs correctly, but you cannot share the data folder in Quickbooks Database Server Manager if the Desktop folder is redirected. You get an "Unable to resolve the root folder" error when you try to browse for the data folder to scan. This error unfortunately is not elaborated on in any my Google searches. Again, not sure why this is since the folder being shared is local, and access to that folder works just fine from other computers. Intuit level 2 support also doesn't know about this error. If you put the Desktop folder back in it's default location, you can do the folder scan fine and then multi-user access works as desired. Further....once this is done, you can re-redirect the Desktop folder back to the network location and the sharing still works.

It may be that there is something more-clever to solve these related problems when you use redirected folders, but I suspect there isn't. I suspect it's just bad programming that hard-codes the default location for things without contemplating that anyone would take advantage of redirected folders.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn the solution to the Ninite problem before I ran into the Quickbooks problem, so I wasted a few hours today beating my head against that particular wall. Fun times.

In my experience, QB needs to have the company files on the system running the database manager. It will not work as expected if you try and use network or remote locations. The easiest solution here is just create a folder on C: for the QBData and point it there. In QB - cant you schedule automatic backups? You could schedule the backup to save to the NAS. Or if the NAS is Synology, I think they have a backup software that you can install on the device and backup the entire system to the NAS.

For the Ninite installer thing.. Im not super familiar with that but maybe try signing onto the computer with another account (generic admin) that isn't redirecting any folders and install the program from that account?

 

[HCHTech]

. If it was me I'd stick the company file(s) back on the workstation and then focus on getting backups over. As soon as there is a problem with networking I'd venture a guess File Doctor will fail because of the redirect.

The company files ARE on a local directory. The only directories that are on the NAS are the user's Desktop and Documents directory. Everything else is local. That's why it didn't make sense. It installed fine with the desktop folder redirected, I just couldn't share a (local) directory using the Database Server Manager when the user's Desktop directory was redirected.

 

[HCHTech]

In my experience, QB needs to have the company files on the system running the database manager. It will not work as expected if you try and use network or remote locations. The easiest solution here is just create a folder on C: for the QBData and point it there. In QB - cant you schedule automatic backups? You could schedule the backup to save to the NAS. Or if the NAS is Synology, I think they have a backup software that you can install on the device and backup the entire system to the NAS.

For the Ninite installer thing.. Im not super familiar with that but maybe try signing onto the computer with another account (generic admin) that isn't redirecting any folders and install the program from that account?

The company files aren't on a network location. They are definitely on a local directory. There is just a problem sharing that local directory with Quickbooks Database Server Manager if the user's Desktop directory is redirected. It's weird, and I suspect it's a bug. I'll admit this isn't a common configuration, but it should definitely work, IMO.

 

[putz]

The company files aren't on a network location. They are definitely on a local directory. There is just a problem sharing that local directory with Quickbooks Database Server Manager if the user's Desktop directory is redirected. It's weird, and I suspect it's a bug. I'll admit this isn't a common configuration, but it should definitely work, IMO.

Ahh I get ya now, I thought you meant the company files were on the desktop thus being redirected. My bad. I'm not sure exactly why that would be. We typically don't use a end-users workstation as the 'server', so I cant say much from that POV. Its intuit so who knows what kind of hodgepodge code they used for their program.

 

[Markverhyden]

The company files ARE on a local directory. The only directories that are on the NAS are the user's Desktop and Documents directory. Everything else is local. That's why it didn't make sense. It installed fine with the desktop folder redirected, I just couldn't share a (local) directory using the Database Server Manager when the user's Desktop directory was redirected.

Ahhh.... I see, I see said the blind man.... Wonder if it was looking for the shortcut the installer puts on the desktop. At any rate that is odd.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah I've seen that year ago, sometimes the way redirected folders are done...can impact installers for certain software. I recall taking over a nursing home client many years ago, and one time..spending a ton of time troubleshooting why Adobe Acrobat wouldn't install. Odd. Ended up being the way the permissions were setup on the "redirecteduserfolders" directory on the server. Had to redo all of that.and it sorted out.

Luckily I don't have any clients left with the old fashioned redirected folders to the server...as m365's OneDrive has taken that over.

 

[HCHTech]

This is a good point, I didn't try checking to see if the SYSTEM user had full permission to the redirected folder - interesting. Anyway, I stand by this still being bad programming. It's easy enough to point to the desktop directory without assuming it's on the C: drive. I'm sure this will be a lesson learned that I won't get to apply again since this is such an uncommon setup.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Folder redirection breaks Adobe and Intuit apps... They use the documents folder as an installation cache, so if those folders aren't on a local disk... bad things happen.

 

[cyabro]

I’ve seen this with MYOB as well.
Doesn’t like the documents folder being redirected.
They do provide an MSI installer file that would work so maybe QB do something similar?