Continuing the saga of the Offline Files problem, I encountered more problems, this time on a different laptop (call it the “client laptop”). I couldn’t get the machine to go into Online mode for more than two seconds or less. Connections to another computer via RDP from that same client laptop were fine. I tried adding HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache\SilentForcedAutoReconnect with a DWORD32 value of 1, per http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Windows_Networking/Q_25063787.html, but nothing. I also tried changing the Group Policy options in that article and then gpupdate /force. Again, nothing. I reset the GP options to their default and left the registry setting as it was. Strangely, after disabling the Offline Files service and restarting, I was able to see my target share, but when I tried browsing it, it began asking for permissions. Then I added “Authenticated Users” to the share on the target device, but, again, nothing. I restarted Offline Files—still nothing.
I ended up unjoining the client laptop from the homegroup and then rejoining it. After doing this, the permissions prompt went away, and I was able to browse again, and Offline Files began behaving normally. So, my conclusion is that this was a permissions issue pertaining to the fact that I had recently done a bunch of driver updates on the target computer, including extensive updates to the network adapters, and had also added the Intel Wireless Display and MyWiFi software. Homegroup was the cultprit. After unjoining and rejoining all my computers to the homegroup, everything seems to be working again.
