Users may receive an "Access is denied" error message if you make files and folders available for offline use (275461)

SYMPTOMS

If you are an administrator and you try to make folders or files available for offline use, the users may receive one of the following error messages:

Message 1

Offline Files
Unable to make folder name available offline on \\server name\share name\folder name access is denied

Message 2

Errors occurred while Windows was synchronizing your data. Offline files (\\server_name\share_name): Access to 'filename' is denied on \\server_name\share_name\user_name.

This symptom occurs if the users do not have the appropriate permissions to the root of the share that they are trying to synchronize with when they create the file for offline use.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if you create a share, put the user's subfolder under a root share folder, and then include the folder name as part of the drive mapping. For example, this issue may occur in the following scenario:

On a server that has a folder named Home, you create a share for users to connect named \\server_name\home$.
You map a drive on the client computer as \\server_name\home$\user_name.

RESOLUTION

To configure a share so that users can synchronize with a subfolder under the Home$ share, grant all of the users at least Read permissions on the Home folder. You must do so because the Offline Folder functionality checks the user's permissions on the root share when it first establishes synchronization.