If you don't want to use automatic synchronization but want to avoid the requirement to synchronize manually, you can configure synchronization to occur when your computer is idle or at specific times. To configure synchronization for computer idle time, open the Items to Synchronize dialog box, then click Setup to open the Synchronization Settings dialog box. Go to the On Idle tab to enable synchronization during computer idle times, then click Advanced to open the Idle Settings dialog box, which Figure 3 shows. Establish the specifications for idle-time synchronization, then click OK.
To schedule synchronization, go to the Synchronization Settings' Scheduled tab. Click Add to launch the Scheduled Synchronization Wizard, then select the appropriate options. You can create multiple schedules. Note that the Offline Files feature completely manages scheduled synchronization tasks, so these tasks don't appear in the system Scheduled Tasks folder. Don't use scheduled synchronization unless you regularly log on to the network and can choose a time when you know you'll be connected. Although the Scheduled Synchronization Wizard has an option to connect to the network automatically if you aren't already connected at the scheduled time, this option works only when you connect through a dial-up connection, not when you connect at the office through a NIC or a docking station.
Troubleshooting Synchronization
If only one user accesses particular files through the Offline Files feature, that user probably won't encounter a problem with synchronization. However, that situation is unlikely in the enterprise. Files and folders usually are available for offline access to multiple users, in which case synchronization becomes more complicated. Again, put yourself in your users' shoes so that you can help them solve the following common synchronization problems.
Network files have changed. When another user modifies the network copy of a file while you (as a user) are working on the same file offline, a situation called file conflict occurs, and Win2K prompts you to decide how you want to save your modified file. During synchronization, you receive a Resolve File Conflict dialog box, which offers three choices for resolving the conflict. You can write your version of the file to the network, replacing the changed file; keep the network version of the file, replacing your local copy; or keep both versions by entering a new filename for your local file before copying it to the network.
Network files have been deleted. When you try to synchronize an offline file for which the network copy has been deleted, you receive an error message that no matching file exists on the network. You can copy the file's local version to the network, or you can delete the file from your computer.
You want to remove a file from your Offline Files Folder. When you delete an offline file from your computer, the local system doesn't remove the file from your system. Instead, it simply changes the file's status to reflect that the file was deleted locally. To remove the file from your local Offline Files Folder, select the file on the server (while you're working online) and choose File, Make Available Offline to toggle off offline access.
Conflicts occur when you connect to multiple LANs. Even when multiple LAN connections are available to you, the Items to Synchronize dialog box doesn't specify which LAN connection you're using. When your Offline Files Folder contains files from more than one LAN connection, the Offline Files feature can't determine which files to synchronize according to the LAN you're connected to, even though each file listing contains the \\servename\sharename path. As a result, during automatic synchronization, you receive an error message (for those files that aren't available on the LAN to which you've logged on) that the synchronization process couldn't connect to the server. (I consider this inability to handle multiple LAN connections to be a bug, but Microsoft hasn't yet indicated that the company is working on a fix.)
When you see this error message, click Skip. You must click Skip for every file that isn't available from the current network connection.
To avoid this error, reconfigure synchronization before you log on to a particular LAN. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer, then choose Tools, Synchronize from the menu bar. Make sure that only folders that are on the LAN you're about to join are selected.
Get to Work
For networks that have a substantial amount of group collaboration for projects, the Offline Files feature offers a way to make sure all your users can work, whether or not they're connected to the network. More important, the synchronization of offline files means that one user's work won't overwrite another's.