As a result of a bug in our most recent update, you may have noticed that some of the files in your mesh either ceased to synchronize across your devices or appear to be missing altogether. Please see our recent blog posts (here and here) for an explanation of why this happened and the actions that we are, and have been, taking to resolve the issue. Some of you, with a large number of affected folders, have already been contacted by us with an offer to have an automated clean up tool run on our servers to help resolve conflicts and restore your Live Mesh folders (please see this thread for further details). This tool will be run a few times over the next few days. You may also manually resolve the issue if you wish. Below are a series of steps you can take to recover all of your files and re-establish stable synchronization of your Live Mesh folders. If after following these steps you find you need further assistance, please contact us at lmprev@microsoft.com.
If you have only one computer in your mesh, go directly to Step 3.
Step 1: Choose the computer in your mesh that has the most recent version of the Live Mesh folder affected by the bug.
If you have more than one computer in your mesh, identify which one has the most recent versions of the files in the folder. You can use any computer, but choosing the one that has the most (and most recent) data will save time. Set that computer aside.
Step 2: On each of the other computers in your mesh (omitting the one you set aside in Step 1), stop synchronizing the Live Mesh folder affected by the bug.
a. On your computer, open the Live Mesh notifier (located in the notifications area of your Windows taskbar), and then click Exit.
b. Click Start, then click All Programs, then click Live Mesh, and then click Live Mesh again.
c. Once Live Mesh starts, sign in using your Windows Live ID.
d. Open the notifier, then click the Folders icon, then click Manage folders. If the folder affected by this bug is under Not synchronized with this device, go to Step f. If the folder is under Synchronized with this device, right click the folder, and then click Change sync settings.
e. In the Change Synchronization dialog box, select the device you're using, then use the drop-down menu to select Never with this device. Click OK. The folder will no longer be synchronized with this computer.
f. On your computer, locate the folder. It should now appear as a regular Windows folder, and not as a blue Live Mesh folder.
g. Rename the folder “[foldername]_backup” to ensure you have a backup of your files on that computer.
Step 3: Locate one current and synchronized copy of the affected Live Mesh folder on your computer. If you have more than one computer in your mesh and you set aside a computer in Step 1, locate the folder on that computer.
a. On your computer, open the Live Mesh notifier (located in the notifications area of your Windows taskbar), and then click Exit.
b. Click Start, then click All Programs, then click Live Mesh, and then click Live Mesh again.
c. Once Live Mesh starts, sign in using your Windows Live ID.
d. Locate the Live Mesh folder affected by the bug. Open the folder. If the Live Mesh bar appears, go to Step f. If the mesh bar does not appear, the folder has stopped synchronizing. This was likely due to the bug we fixed. Synchronize the folder again by right-clicking it, then clicking Add folder to your Live Mesh.
e. Open the folder again. You should now see the mesh bar.
f. In the mesh bar, click Synchronized Devices, then wait for synchronization to complete.
g. You will now likely have synchronization conflicts to resolve. Click the conflicts notification at the top of the mesh bar, then follow the instructions in the Conflicts dialog box to resolve the conflicts.
Step 4: Look through the folder for any missing files.
If you notice files missing, try the following:
- If you have more than one computer in your mesh, on the computer you set aside in Step 1, open “foldername_backup” to see if it contains the missing file.
- Open the Recycle Bin on all the computers in your mesh to see if it contains the missing file.
If you still can't find the file, it's possible you or another member of the folder deleted it or the file was otherwise lost.
If you find the file, copy it to the Live Mesh folder you re-synchronized in Step 3d. The file will now begin synchronizing with your Live Desktop. Once synchronization is complete, your Live Desktop will have a clean copy of the Live Mesh folder.
Step 5: Synchronize the clean folder on your Live Desktop with other computers in your mesh.
a. On your computer, open the notifier, then click the Folders icon, then click Manage folders.
b. Double-click the clean Live Mesh folder (it will be under Not synchronized with this device).
c. In the Synchronize folder dialog box, click OK. If you see the Merge with existing folder? dialog box, click No. Do not synchronize the clean folder with an existing folder. If you followed Step 2 above, you should have a partial copy of this folder on the computer you set aside, and it is very important that you do not synchronize the newly cleaned Live Mesh folder from your Live Desktop on top of the partial folder that already exists on that computer. Instead, rename the partial folder on that computer, then synchronize the clean folder.
d. Open the folder.
e. In the mesh bar, click Synchronized Devices and wait for the folder to finish synchronizing.
You should now have a completely repaired Live Mesh folder. You can remove any of the ”[folder]_backup” folders that are left on your computer. There should be no files in those folders that are not also in the clean Live Mesh folder at this point.
