Consider the following scenario:

• You are running Microsoft Office Outlook on a Windows Vista-based computer.
• You are using a Personal Folders File (.pst file) that is stored in a folder.
• The folder is redirected to a server.
• The .pst file is cached locally by Client-Side Caching (CSC).

In this scenario, when the client computer synchronizes the cached .pst file with the server, you cannot access the .pst file.

Note: The client computer may access the .pst file when an Outlook rule runs or when the AutoArchive feature runs. Also, the client computer accesses the .pst file when you click the messages in the .pst file.

When this issue occurs, you have to remove and then re-add the .pst file. Or, you have to close and then reopen Outlook.

You open the root directory that contains offline files on a Windows Vista-based computer. When you try to synchronize the offline files with the file server for the first time, the synchronization is unsuccessful. In this situation, Windows Vista does not resume the synchronization. Additionally, when you click the offline files that are not synchronized, you receive an access denied message.

Note: When the synchronization is unsuccessful, Windows Vista creates broken branches of the synchronization tree.

When you use the Microsoft Windows Media Player to synchronize lots of files with a Microsoft Windows Mobile device, the connection between Windows Media Player and the device is disconnected.

Consider the following scenario:

• You set up an offline files synchronization partnership between a Windows Vista-based computer and a network share. After you do this, the files on the network share are copied to the Windows Vista-based computer.
• When you work offline, you update both the network share and the copy.
• When you try to synchronize the network share and the copy, you receive an error message that resembles the following:
  

  Sync conflicts have occured

• In Windows Vista Sync Center, you use the Keep both versions option to resolve the conflict.

In this scenario, Sync Center indicates that the conflict has been resolved and that the synchronization is successful. However, when you synchronize the network share and the copy again, you receive the same error message.

This problem occurs if you use the Keep both versions option while you are working offline.

When you modify an offline file in Windows Vista, the changes are not saved to the server when files are synchronized. When this problem occurs, you receive the following error message:

Access Denied.

Additionally, a .tmp file that corresponds to the file appears on the server.

You may experience this symptom even when you have Change permissions to the shared resource.

You set up an offline files sync partnership between a Windows Vista-based computer and a network folder. After you do this, you disable the network connection on the Windows Vista-based computer. However, when you try to edit a file in the network folder on the Windows Vista-based computer, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

file is not available on this computer (0×800710FE)

Additionally, when you try to open the file, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

Could not open \\server\share\filename.ext.

After you enable the network connection on the Windows Vista-based computer to synchronize the files, you cannot synchronize the files. When you click Sync All in the Windows Vista Sync Center, you may receive the following error message:

Unexpected Network Error

This problem occurs if you have Panda Antivirus software installed on the computer.

Consider the following scenario. You have configured offline file folders on a computer that is running Windows Vista. At the same time that offline files are synchronized, the Windows Vista-based computer switches to suspend mode. Later, you try to synchronize offline files.

In this scenario, the operation to synchronize offline files appears to succeed. For example, the file metadata, such as file size, timestamp, and other metadata is identical. However, the files on the server are corrupted, and the file contents are randomly different.

You cannot synchronize Personal Information Manager (PIM) data between a Windows Mobile device and Windows Vista.

When you play a video or a DVD in Windows Vista, the audio part of the playback may not be synchronized with the video playback.

Internet time servers have been around for a while to help synchronize computer clocks. For most of us, this isn’t a critical need, but occasionally having your computer at the correct time could be important. There have been utilities around for as long as there have been time servers that will synchronize your computer with the servers. In Windows XP, they built this function in (though I never even noticed it), and it’s built into Vista as well. Keep reading →