I'm looking into reversing a folder redirection setup for My Documents on our domain. Currently, there's a Group Policy Object (GPO) that forces folder redirection, affecting only the My Documents folder while others follow it. I'm trying to find a way to move everything back to local storage. From my research, it seems like I can modify the GPO by: changing the target location to redirect to the local user profile, enabling the option to move the contents to the new location, and ensuring the folder redirects back to the local profile when the policy is removed. Once I apply these changes, I plan to let it run for a few days to ensure that users' files transfer from the network share to local drives before ultimately removing the GPO. Is this correct? Additionally, I'm eyeing a long-term goal of migrating everyone to OneDrive, but I'm unsure how many users have it activated for backing up their documents.
2 Answers
You could simply disable that group policy and create a new one with default folder redirection settings. The next time users log in, it should redirect everything back to their local machines. After that, you can set up another policy for your OneDrive known folder move settings.
That method might not always work seamlessly. It's generally better to modify the GPO to redirect back to local storage as you mentioned, then wait for the policy to process. Just make sure to double-check that everyone has really redirected back. I had issues in the past when I assumed it was done and ended up deleting folders without verification.
Thanks for all the great input, everyone! It's been really helpful in clarifying the steps I need to take.
Will this process automatically copy the files from the network share to their new local profiles? I'm trying to avoid having to physically touch all the machines to do this.