SBS 2003 Group Policy Issue

In the policy itself did you check "Redirect the folder back to the local user profile when the policy is removed"?
If not try that, followed by GPupdate /force.
Seems to me folder redirection requires 2 logons before applied, after GPupdate

I re-enabled the policy, ensured the "Redirect the folder back, etc" was checked, followed by two gpupdate /force, then a reboot. Desktop and app data once again are redirected.

After the reboot, i disabled the policy, followed by three gpupdate /force, and another reboot, but the folders are still redirecting. .... ... .. . At a loss here...

Common mistake, and common misperception.

What happens here is that when the group policy is *first* applied, if the checkbox to "redirect to original location" is checked then the original location is stored in the registry so that files can get moved back when the GP falls outside of scope. If you initially created the policy WITHOUT checking that box then that setting never got saved to the registry, files got moved, and the "original" location is lost forever. No amount of checking, gpupdate, etc after the fact can recover that info because the data was already moved and the path destroyed.  This is why even reapplying the policy and checking the box doesn't fix the issue. At this point the "original" loYou *cation *is* the server.

All is not lost, however. What you can do is enable folder redirection, and in the location path of the group policy, choose "redirect to the local userprofile location" (I also recommend *UNCHECKING* the move to original location checkbox!)

This will cause folder redirection to move files back to the default location for user profiles on that machine...which in 99% of all cases is what you want.

----

If you are interested in exactly what the difference is, a simple illustration:

1) You start out with a local profile.

2) Your music is in c:\users\cgaliher\music (win7 assumed here)

3) You right-click on the music folder in your local profile and change the location to a folder on your D: drive because it has more space.

4) Later, folder redirection is enabled and the original location checkbox is checked.

5) Even later, the group policy is disabled.
... because that checkbox was checked, files in the music folder will get moved from the shared path back to D:, *NOT* back to C:. The custom path for the music was preserved.

Conversely, if the checkbox was *NOT* checked and the "redirect to local userprofile location" option is used, the music files will be moved back to c:\users\cgaliher\music (the default location for music in a new profile) as an assumed default must be used now. The custom path was not preserved.

----

As you can see, in most cases, where custom paths were not defined on local resources before the policy was in place, the end result will actually be the same. But I wanted to illustrate the difference as, in rare cases, odd side-effects can occur, particularly with profiles that may have large amounts of redirected data that reside on local volumes too small to accomodate the new redirection back to default local paths.

As always, have a backup.

-Cliff

The first response did not correct the issue. After researching and testing, the solution I did was completed before the second response was posted.