Folder Portal Disappears

Hello,
I have forward your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

This can happen if the drive is only accessible when you are logged in - in other words, it does not actually exist until you do.

Perhaps the best way around it is to map the location and folder portal to that map:

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I'm having the same issue on my Client provided laptop (I'm a consultant).  One of my folder portals always disappears.  However, I noticed if I mapped my portal to a subfolder in that same directory, it would stick.  After it held, I tried re-mapping it to the parent folder, but then it disappeared again.

I wonder if it has to do with the folder name?  This folder name that keeps disappearing has Square Brackets in it " [External Access] ".  My client uses that to indicate that their outside clients/customers have access to the SharePoint site.  However, I have another one with Square Brackets in the name that sticks.

Also, I map to another folder with a very similar name but no Square Brackets, which is the internal site for that same project.  That one stays put, not like the External Access one.

Both folders start with "Project Name - ".  Not sure if that is causing some sort of glitch for either OneDrive/SharePoint or Fences or the interaction of the two.

I did think it might be related to the "On Demand" feature of OneDrive/SharePoint, so I created a text file in the top level of the folder I wanted to map to that I used as an "Anchor" and changed the settings to "Always keep on this Device" for that file, but that didn't help.

One other data point, as I said, I'm a consultant, so I also have this mapped on my Consulting Laptop. It works fine there.  Both are running the same version of Fences, but I did notice that the OneDrive versions are different.

Obviously, the client laptop also sits on their domain and has lots of other controls and policies in place from IT.  Maybe one of those settings is causing this issue.

So, to recap.  Having the same issue that others are seeing, but only on one of two laptops.  Same mapping and to same folder works on one but not on the other.  Hope that helps someone figure it out.

Thanks!

I was never able to find a solution.  I must remap the one directory every time the computer reboots.  It is a SharePoint directory, but I've created a shortcut on my D: drive in an attempt to create a permanent location for the link.  That did not work either.  I keep hoping an update will fix the problem, but it has not thus far.

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

If you create a shortcut to the destination in a folder, does the shortcut always work?  Example:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/explorer_2022-10-18_11-56-05.mp4

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

That worked! I had always clicked into the shortcut when creating the portal on the desktop, but never created the portal to the D: drive and clicked through the shortcut in the portal that was created.  

Thank you!

The "shortcut" work around does not work for me.  Plus, it's a work around, not a solution.

I paid for the v4 upgrade (bought 5 license pack) on all my machines, I'm still having this issue.   Don't you find it odd that it happens on one PC, but not the other?  Both of them are syncing the same way to the same OneDrive/Sharepoint folder.

Also, isn't it strange that if I setup a folder portal to a subdirectory instead of the top level directory, then that one works?  If the root cause was the "sign in" issue where the folder is not available until signed in, why would the sub directory work?  It should have the same issue.

Where are all the folder portal configs stored?  Is there an xml file or something that I can inspect to see what's different about the folder path for the one portal that always disappears?  Plus, it would be great to have a backup of the file right after I setup the portal, so that I can quickly restore it instead of having to "add" the folder portal everytime.

(This is further exacerbated because we can't save our own default folder portal settings which know users have been requesting for years, so I always have to uncheck "allow navigation", change the view to "list", and then check "roll up fence" EVERY SINGLE TIME I create a new folder portal.  Please allow us to save our own default folder portal settings!)

'Does not work for me' = 'It works, but I dont like the solution?' or it actually does not work?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager