Vista - Offline Files "Change Limits" button not working

My Offline Files has been doing some strange things lately. Not only does my
computer lock up to 100% CPU usage every 2 minutes for 1 minute at a time
due to the CSCService (Offline Files), but the "Change Limits" button under
the Disk Usage tab in the Offline Files control panel does not not work.
When I click on "Change Limits", nothing happens.

If I click on the "Delete Temporary Files..." button, a status bar appears
and stays on screen. I clicked this button and left the house for more than
5 hours and came back and it was still on the progress indicator.

In the control panel, it shows 99 GB in use and 99 GB available (???) in the
overview. I have 250GB HD so not sure why it's showing I have 99GB
available. And under Temporary offline files, it shows 99 GB in use and 99
GB available. It's like my offline files has become corrupt somehow.

This is the 2nd time I've had to re-install Vista due to problems like this.
I really need to keep offline files enabled, but it just doesn't seem to
work and/or causes my computer to crap out.

Does anyone know how to repair/reset the Offline Files so I can change the
limits in the Control Panel again???

Mine too.

I've got pictures, videos and music available offline. They're grayed
out so i can't do anything with them.

I can't re-enable any other folder, i tick the box or click available
offline, nothing happens, go back to properties and its not selected.

cant change the cache size as above.

and all this because vista decided that i needed 60gig off offline
files for a 4.5gig folder and a 1 gig folder.

i disabled offline files, deleted the csc contents, re-enabled offline
and now cannot sync what i had before.

BUT I'VE found a solution.

I'm dumping vista and putting xp on.

i might use another MS operating system when they sell one that works,
not sells the users a beta version to test.


--
bikky
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

Seen this question all over the internet, and haven't come across a solution so thought I'd post a reply.

I've just found a solution that appears to work.

Go to Control Panel, and disable Offline Files. Restart.

Take ownership of C:\Windows\CSC (or wherever your Offline Folders store is located).
Delete C:\Windows\CSC (or wherever your Offline Folders store is located).

Go to Control Panel, enable Offline Files. Restart.

Re-setup your syncs.

Thank you for sharing you experience with us.

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"BMC134" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:0fdc978c881c6d929e935bd2ace5bd85@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

I use this machine as a PVR and media extender synching my music and pictures to it from the home "server" machine where I hold all media centrally.

I also had this problem with my offline files and the fact my system disk was showing 20BG free after scavenging all the dross files out of it. I was unable to account for or find some 60GB of files but nowhere could I find the culprit until I downloaded treesize, logged on as admin and then ran treesize as admin. Then I saw the 60GB CSC files which equated to my offline files.

So I followed the advice above re. offline file disable and reduce file limits but vista would not let me release the offline cache. So I tried to take ownership and delete them manually but even though I own all of this stuff, in a strange HAL-like Dark star way my machine would not allow me to delete my own files.

So I followed a link to Microsoft You may be unable to delete the cache of offline files from the client-side caching (CSC) cache on an offline Windows Vista-based client computer where there is apparently a hot-fix for precisely this problem. I downloaded, unzipped and ran it but it gave me a message "The update does not apply to your system".

So here I am with a vista rotweiller which will not let me delete my own files. Not happy

having said all that I looked some more and applying new ownership properties at the top-level folder does not appear to work BUT this is possibly because some of the lower level folders contain "dodgy" files such as "thumbs" and "desktop". The way around this is to start at each "child" folder and take ownership of that folder by using the "properties tab" / security tab / advanced / edit / check BOTH boxes (replace all existing inheritable permissions)

Once you do this you find and isolate the rogue lower level folders which contain files the system refuses to tamper with. Then you can delete the compliant folders and leave the dodgy ones where you have to take ownership individually.

or thats how I did it anyway. My problem was that I have 25GB of music organised by WMP and somehow over the years some of the album folders seem to have acquired those odd files. Similarly just started tackling the photos but may opt to leave them in cache for now as I now have 45GB where before I had 20. Perhaps enough space to play with ubuntu, nah just kidding. The lesson here I think is be careful how you use offline files.

The reason I had this difficulty is the wireless connection between this vista/TV machine used as media extender and the home file server (XP) is not fast enough to transfer pictures and music never mind video unless you store offline copies in cache. I did not want to splash out on a new machine with TB of space until I understood the MC experience. A new machine with say 100GB assigned to the system disk or - maybe no partitioning - would probably not have stumbled over this issue at all. Interestingly the X-box works fine in this mode - albeit like an aircraft taking off.

Third pass. i think this is what it boils down to. When you cannot delete a folder or file in Vista you may have to take explicit ownership of it and pass the credentials down to all the child files. You can do this by viewing the properties/security tag of the higher level folder. Then select "advanced" button. Select the "owner" tab and on that page click "edit" Click on your name (assuming added earlier), and tick the "replace owner on subcontainers and objects" box. Click ok.

obviously make sure you have backups etc. apologies if someone already described this and i was too dense to understand