Bob Brown
asked on
Internet Explorer favorites disappear in Citrix
I have user who's Internet Explorer 11 favorites keep disappearing. I then restore her favorites, and then later in the day or the next day her favorites have disappeared again.
The environment is Citrix XenApp 6.5, Windows 2008 r2. The user has a Win 7 desktop computer with the ICA client to get into Citrix environment.
The user started to get involved in goto.webex webinar's - Just thought I would add this incase it makes a difference.
What could be causing this, and how do I make it stop. ??
The environment is Citrix XenApp 6.5, Windows 2008 r2. The user has a Win 7 desktop computer with the ICA client to get into Citrix environment.
The user started to get involved in goto.webex webinar's - Just thought I would add this incase it makes a difference.
What could be causing this, and how do I make it stop. ??
ASKER
Hi
Arnold , the user does not get any favorites they are all gone, and their is never a notice.
Arnold , the user does not get any favorites they are all gone, and their is never a notice.
User setup, roaming profiles, folder redirection? GPO for folder redirection on the Citrix box?
ASKER
Arnold - How is what your saying going to help.
the question asked by arnold is to find the location where the profile/favirites should be stored.
this is a good question!
this is a good question!
Thanks Dirk,
Your question points to intermittent (disappearing) this suggests there might be two locations or the citrix might be using offline ......
With folder redirections, the Favorities folder presumably is also being redirected as it is is not within the profile.
When the user logs into the citrix session, for one reason or another, either the favorites from the profile can not be copied out, or the location where they are stored is intermittently inaccessible.
Either because of a stale session on the server hosting the share, and in the case of favorites, the user will not get an alert, but just a blank list of favorites when IE is opened.
The other possibility, you have a domain based share that has replication issues such that when node1 is target, the favorites are there, but when node2 is the target, the favorites folder is empty and nothing is displayed.
Beside the favotires issue, does this user experience any other issues with access to their documents, desktop files, etc.?
Your question points to intermittent (disappearing) this suggests there might be two locations or the citrix might be using offline ......
With folder redirections, the Favorities folder presumably is also being redirected as it is is not within the profile.
When the user logs into the citrix session, for one reason or another, either the favorites from the profile can not be copied out, or the location where they are stored is intermittently inaccessible.
Either because of a stale session on the server hosting the share, and in the case of favorites, the user will not get an alert, but just a blank list of favorites when IE is opened.
The other possibility, you have a domain based share that has replication issues such that when node1 is target, the favorites are there, but when node2 is the target, the favorites folder is empty and nothing is displayed.
Beside the favotires issue, does this user experience any other issues with access to their documents, desktop files, etc.?
ASKER
Dirk Kotte ; I must disagree - the clarity at which Arnold asked his question in contrast to my won - Is not good
Arnolds last response or comment is good.
Arnolds last response or comment is good.
Bob, the distinction between a question posed by you and by a question posed by me as a response is that you have to provide the context, detail, of your situation. My question is specific to your situation and tries to get additional details about your situation that were not included in your original question based on what I think the issue might be and require the answer to the question to confirm whether my thought on what might be going on is in the correct path to solve your issue.
From where and to where did you copy the user's favorites?
What is the tine frame from the time you copy the faborites, to when they disappear. If it is a set time frame, this could mean you use local profileson the Citrix environment while you also have cleanup process deleting files from profiles older then a certain ........
From where and to where did you copy the user's favorites?
What is the tine frame from the time you copy the faborites, to when they disappear. If it is a set time frame, this could mean you use local profileson the Citrix environment while you also have cleanup process deleting files from profiles older then a certain ........
ASKER
I want to add, a bit of information that may help,.
The users favorites are stored in their profiles that are in the Citrix RDSuser folder. Only two users have reported this problem.
The subfolder called favorites bar, and one intranet site link do not disappear, everything else does.
Does this help resolve the problem.
RDSusers\TShine\Favorites.
The users favorites are stored in their profiles that are in the Citrix RDSuser folder. Only two users have reported this problem.
The subfolder called favorites bar, and one intranet site link do not disappear, everything else does.
Does this help resolve the problem.
RDSusers\TShine\Favorites.
ASKER
The users including the two who loss their favorites login to different Citrix servers which are within a farm.
Check whether you have a GPO that copies/maintains the default favorites and potentially removing entries that ..on these servers where there is a profile cleanup process?
When you copied one of those user's favorites, where did you copy them from? or you went through a restore from backup?
When you copied one of those user's favorites, where did you copy them from? or you went through a restore from backup?
ASKER
I restored favorites from backups.
Check the server to see whether it has some maintenance cleanup, or a variance on GPO settings that impacts the user's profile.
At this point, it seems you have two users who access this server in the farm, and experience similar issues. are there any other files impacted, or are you using a document management system that removes the possibility of file loss since they are not stored within the user's profile?
other than the favorites, anything else resets, start menu, quicklinks in the taskbar, etc?
Trying to see whether somehow the user's profile folder gets deleted.
Depending on your backup plan, though one can not spot when there are no changes or when there are deletions.
One thing to try, is to have one or both of these users to add a dummy favorite (they can delete the prior days given they are not the same)
And see if it disappears again, whether the disapearance occurred before or after the scheduled backup. if it disappears before, you would at least have a time frame. i.e. if the person is consistent in adding a dummy favorite daily. and you have a full/differential, incremental backup scheme, the daily run should reflect a dummy favorite in the user's profile. the day that the backup does not, (depending on the backup, you merely need to look at the catalog if possible).
once you discover the pattern i.e. every three weeks, the profle is knocked out. Though additions might "keep" the profile "active" and a cleanup process will leave it alone.
If you have control over it to have another user directed to use this same system, and see if they too start experiencing loss of favorites after X number of days....... If so you might have to check how this server's configuration/setup differs from others.
At this point, it seems you have two users who access this server in the farm, and experience similar issues. are there any other files impacted, or are you using a document management system that removes the possibility of file loss since they are not stored within the user's profile?
other than the favorites, anything else resets, start menu, quicklinks in the taskbar, etc?
Trying to see whether somehow the user's profile folder gets deleted.
Depending on your backup plan, though one can not spot when there are no changes or when there are deletions.
One thing to try, is to have one or both of these users to add a dummy favorite (they can delete the prior days given they are not the same)
And see if it disappears again, whether the disapearance occurred before or after the scheduled backup. if it disappears before, you would at least have a time frame. i.e. if the person is consistent in adding a dummy favorite daily. and you have a full/differential, incremental backup scheme, the daily run should reflect a dummy favorite in the user's profile. the day that the backup does not, (depending on the backup, you merely need to look at the catalog if possible).
once you discover the pattern i.e. every three weeks, the profle is knocked out. Though additions might "keep" the profile "active" and a cleanup process will leave it alone.
If you have control over it to have another user directed to use this same system, and see if they too start experiencing loss of favorites after X number of days....... If so you might have to check how this server's configuration/setup differs from others.
ASKER
what would the GPO be called that could be causing this problem.
The name is set by an admin, using gpmc you could run results against the server to see whether it has a startup/shutdown script that goes through managing space of profiles.
The task could be part of the scheduler, schtasks /query
It is easier to identities where to look, if/when the pattern can be identified.
I.e. After two weeks, the issue comes up, looking at event log to see what might have happened.
If local users, setting up wbadmin to backup the user profike folder locally in addition to your existing backup. ......
Or limiting this local vacuum to these users.
The other possibility, the user's session abruptly terminated, I.e. The hone system from which they connect, abruptly reboots. The session remains active versus detecting and chNging yo disconnect, on the next user login, the user is ... Corrupting the prior profile, ...
The task could be part of the scheduler, schtasks /query
It is easier to identities where to look, if/when the pattern can be identified.
I.e. After two weeks, the issue comes up, looking at event log to see what might have happened.
If local users, setting up wbadmin to backup the user profike folder locally in addition to your existing backup. ......
Or limiting this local vacuum to these users.
The other possibility, the user's session abruptly terminated, I.e. The hone system from which they connect, abruptly reboots. The session remains active versus detecting and chNging yo disconnect, on the next user login, the user is ... Corrupting the prior profile, ...
ASKER
Let try to understand the Problem with more detail
Some Not all users which are total of two get there “IE” ver 11 links to websites deleted from their favorites, and folders in IE also get deleted in favorites – Except for the Favorites Bar folder, and the company internet website.
The user notices the deletion, removal or disappearance in IE, And I see it on the Back end in
The RDSusers folder which has the actual Folder Favorites and internet sites stored.
I restore the users favorites, and then a few days later it happens again.
The users are logging into a Citrix session, Windows 2008 r2 and the RDS users folder is stored
On a separate server.
Ok – How can I resolve this problem.
Some Not all users which are total of two get there “IE” ver 11 links to websites deleted from their favorites, and folders in IE also get deleted in favorites – Except for the Favorites Bar folder, and the company internet website.
The user notices the deletion, removal or disappearance in IE, And I see it on the Back end in
The RDSusers folder which has the actual Folder Favorites and internet sites stored.
I restore the users favorites, and then a few days later it happens again.
The users are logging into a Citrix session, Windows 2008 r2 and the RDS users folder is stored
On a separate server.
Ok – How can I resolve this problem.
It sounds as though these two users have their favorite files reset to a predefined .
Try the following, create a test_new_account and use it to login into this RDS server to see whether the default davorites of this user mimic the ones these two users get.
Point deals whether the profiles "reset" for obe reason or another.
I.e. The rdsuser folder on login is inaccessible, the user is logon with default, the network, gpos apply asynchronously such that on logout the new user profile is copied out to rdsuser, appearing as a deletion of favorite links, files. While actually, technically is not a deletion, but rather a newer profike version is sync up...
Try the following, create a test_new_account and use it to login into this RDS server to see whether the default davorites of this user mimic the ones these two users get.
Point deals whether the profiles "reset" for obe reason or another.
I.e. The rdsuser folder on login is inaccessible, the user is logon with default, the network, gpos apply asynchronously such that on logout the new user profile is copied out to rdsuser, appearing as a deletion of favorite links, files. While actually, technically is not a deletion, but rather a newer profike version is sync up...
ASKER
Hello Arnold
If I understand you correctly this is a synchronization problem.
- If so how can I fix it. ?
If I understand you correctly this is a synchronization problem.
- If so how can I fix it. ?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Arnold
Thanks I will check this and let you know.
Thanks I will check this and let you know.
ASKER
thank you
Does the user get any notice dealing with profile's failure to load, or inaccessible folders?
Does the user get the standard faborites or none at all?