HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,025
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
I have a small business, 4 employees each using new laptops, Windows 10 Pro. No workgroup (they all work from their homes), no domain. We're using OneDrive for business to keep their document store. We are getting frequent sync errors, like this:
X items can't be synced. The error is "we're syncing your files, but it's taking longer than usual". The resolution listed is "The sync should complete soon. if the problem continues, please get in touch with your helpdesk".
BTW, they don't have a lot of documents - they are just getting started, so it's probably only a couple of hundred files at this point in just a handful of directories.
The resolution given by their Office365 vendor is cumbersome - I'll copy the whole thing here and delineate it with bars:
=========================
To fix this there are a few steps that need to be taken. They are as follows:
1. Remove all the stored credentials in the credentials manager (Control Panel > Credentials Manager) – Do this by typing in “credential manager” in the search bar. Then click on “credential manager.” Remove all web credentials and then tab over to the windows credentials and remove each of them. You’ll need to do them one at a time by clicking the down arrow next to each credential and then clicking remove. Then, go ahead and close the Credential Manager.
2. Delete the following folder's:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\Spw
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache
Note: They may get an error saying that the folder is open or in use by another user or program. This means that they have something Office related open. Make sure Skype for Business is closed as well as OneDrive and OneNote. Use the Task Manager to check. – To do this, you’ll first need to show hidden files, because these are hidden files. Go down to the search bar again and type in “File Explorer Options” and then click on it above. Click on the “View” tab. Then, find “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” and then click that option and click OK. Now, we need to task out of all Office programs (some are still running in the background and you won’t be able to delete these folders until all Office programs have stopped running. To do this, first open up a file explorer folder that will be used for the next step (you need to do this first because just opening a file explorer folder triggers the onedrive to start even though you might have tasked out of it before). Then, open up the Task Manager (ctrl, alt, delete and then select task manager). End every task that you see on the Task Manager simplified view that is not the open file explorer folder. Then, click “More Details” to see the background apps. Go down and End Task on any Microsoft Office application that you can (OneDrive and/or Sype are probably running in the background). Then, go over to your open file explorer folder window and navigate to 1 of the 2 folders that you need to delete and try to delete it. If it successfully deletes, move on to delete the 2nd folder. If it doesn’t delete and gives you an error like the yellow note above says, then you’ll need to go back over to the Task Manager and try to find any other Office programs that are running and End Task them. Once you delete both of those files, you are done with this step, so go ahead and close the Task Manager and the File Explorer window.
3. Open up Word and Log Out in the top right corner. – I opened word and I didn’t see a Log Out, but that was because I was already logged out. If it says Log Out, go ahead and log out. If it says Sign In, then you’re already logged out and you can move on. Close the Word document.
4. Restart the computer. – Easy enough.
5. At this point they should start being prompted again for passwords from Outlook or Skype. Go ahead and enter them as well as opening Word and logging in with their email address and password. – Here you’ll want to enter your password in the Outlook box (a smaller box which should already have your email in it, a place for your password, and a “remember credentials” box), click the ‘remember credentials’ box, and then sign in to Outlook. However, do NOT sign into Microsoft OneDrive through the box that pops up. Just click the red x there. Then, go ahead and enter your credentials into the Skype for Business that pops up.
6. Open OneDrive for business and select the folder, or folders, that they want to sync. – To do this, you’ll need to open a browser and go to Office 365. Sign-in. Click on the OneDrive icon. Click on Active_Projects on the left hand side. Click on “Sync” above where all the folders are located. Microsoft OneDrive for Business window will pop up asking which library do you want to sync. Go ahead and click “sync now” at the bottom of that window. You might be prompted to sign-in to your coybalboni account again, so go ahead and do that. Then, with “Documents” selected, click “Sync selected” at the bottom of that window. The files will sync and a new window will pop up where you can click “show my files…” to see the syncing (if it doesn’t take you there, that’s fine, I’ve found sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t… you can just open a file explorer folder to see the location of the synced directory). Now, on the File Explorer folder, you should see the Active_Project documents starting to sync (You’ll notice that and “Active_Projects – Documents 1” was created, but you should still be able to see the broken “Active_Projects – Documents” right above it. You can go ahead and right click the broken one and delete it). Now in the new documents 1 directory that you created, everything will be a little blue recycle symbol to start and then they will slowly start to change to green check marks as the syncing takes place. Just wait and allow everything to sync properly (this should take some time). Once Active Projects is good and all green check marks, go back to Office 365 and start this Step 6 over with Completed Projects and the other directories.
=========================
All users seem to be getting this error a few times per week. It is unrealistic to ask them to go through this procedure, of course. Has anyone else run up against this and found a more reasonable solution?
X items can't be synced. The error is "we're syncing your files, but it's taking longer than usual". The resolution listed is "The sync should complete soon. if the problem continues, please get in touch with your helpdesk".
BTW, they don't have a lot of documents - they are just getting started, so it's probably only a couple of hundred files at this point in just a handful of directories.
The resolution given by their Office365 vendor is cumbersome - I'll copy the whole thing here and delineate it with bars:
=========================
To fix this there are a few steps that need to be taken. They are as follows:
1. Remove all the stored credentials in the credentials manager (Control Panel > Credentials Manager) – Do this by typing in “credential manager” in the search bar. Then click on “credential manager.” Remove all web credentials and then tab over to the windows credentials and remove each of them. You’ll need to do them one at a time by clicking the down arrow next to each credential and then clicking remove. Then, go ahead and close the Credential Manager.
2. Delete the following folder's:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\Spw
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache
Note: They may get an error saying that the folder is open or in use by another user or program. This means that they have something Office related open. Make sure Skype for Business is closed as well as OneDrive and OneNote. Use the Task Manager to check. – To do this, you’ll first need to show hidden files, because these are hidden files. Go down to the search bar again and type in “File Explorer Options” and then click on it above. Click on the “View” tab. Then, find “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” and then click that option and click OK. Now, we need to task out of all Office programs (some are still running in the background and you won’t be able to delete these folders until all Office programs have stopped running. To do this, first open up a file explorer folder that will be used for the next step (you need to do this first because just opening a file explorer folder triggers the onedrive to start even though you might have tasked out of it before). Then, open up the Task Manager (ctrl, alt, delete and then select task manager). End every task that you see on the Task Manager simplified view that is not the open file explorer folder. Then, click “More Details” to see the background apps. Go down and End Task on any Microsoft Office application that you can (OneDrive and/or Sype are probably running in the background). Then, go over to your open file explorer folder window and navigate to 1 of the 2 folders that you need to delete and try to delete it. If it successfully deletes, move on to delete the 2nd folder. If it doesn’t delete and gives you an error like the yellow note above says, then you’ll need to go back over to the Task Manager and try to find any other Office programs that are running and End Task them. Once you delete both of those files, you are done with this step, so go ahead and close the Task Manager and the File Explorer window.
3. Open up Word and Log Out in the top right corner. – I opened word and I didn’t see a Log Out, but that was because I was already logged out. If it says Log Out, go ahead and log out. If it says Sign In, then you’re already logged out and you can move on. Close the Word document.
4. Restart the computer. – Easy enough.
5. At this point they should start being prompted again for passwords from Outlook or Skype. Go ahead and enter them as well as opening Word and logging in with their email address and password. – Here you’ll want to enter your password in the Outlook box (a smaller box which should already have your email in it, a place for your password, and a “remember credentials” box), click the ‘remember credentials’ box, and then sign in to Outlook. However, do NOT sign into Microsoft OneDrive through the box that pops up. Just click the red x there. Then, go ahead and enter your credentials into the Skype for Business that pops up.
6. Open OneDrive for business and select the folder, or folders, that they want to sync. – To do this, you’ll need to open a browser and go to Office 365. Sign-in. Click on the OneDrive icon. Click on Active_Projects on the left hand side. Click on “Sync” above where all the folders are located. Microsoft OneDrive for Business window will pop up asking which library do you want to sync. Go ahead and click “sync now” at the bottom of that window. You might be prompted to sign-in to your coybalboni account again, so go ahead and do that. Then, with “Documents” selected, click “Sync selected” at the bottom of that window. The files will sync and a new window will pop up where you can click “show my files…” to see the syncing (if it doesn’t take you there, that’s fine, I’ve found sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t… you can just open a file explorer folder to see the location of the synced directory). Now, on the File Explorer folder, you should see the Active_Project documents starting to sync (You’ll notice that and “Active_Projects – Documents 1” was created, but you should still be able to see the broken “Active_Projects – Documents” right above it. You can go ahead and right click the broken one and delete it). Now in the new documents 1 directory that you created, everything will be a little blue recycle symbol to start and then they will slowly start to change to green check marks as the syncing takes place. Just wait and allow everything to sync properly (this should take some time). Once Active Projects is good and all green check marks, go back to Office 365 and start this Step 6 over with Completed Projects and the other directories.
=========================
All users seem to be getting this error a few times per week. It is unrealistic to ask them to go through this procedure, of course. Has anyone else run up against this and found a more reasonable solution?
