Persistent corruption of Offline Files (CSC) database

[J Barker]

I posted a similar query to another group a week or so back. This would have
been a better place for it...

I use Offline Files extensively and, for months, have been plagued with
intermittent corruption of the offline database.

When attempting to synchronise, the operation fails with a message like,
"Unable to merge offline changes. The parameter is incorrect."

Csccmd 1.1 finds no error with the database and the only option appears to
be to use csccmd /extract to try and salvage modified files and then
re-initialise the database. By the time the files are re-synchronised, this
is a major undertaking which wastes several hours.

After some experimentation, I've discovered that the problem is related to
pathname length. When working online, XP prevents you from creating files or
folders where the total length exceeds some given maximum.

When working offline, these safeguards don't seem to be applied in the same
way. So, it's possible to create files or folders offline whose full path
exceeds the 'online' limit. When CSC then attempts to synchronise these long
pathnames online, bad things happen and the database gets corrupted.

Interestingly, it is also possible to create files online which don't quite
break the path length limit but which then aren't available offline - they
just don't appear. This isn't as bad a problem, though, as the database
corruption issue.

My current workaround is to map a network drive some way down the folder
tree to reduce the maximum pathname length for the worst-case folder. In
time, the same problem is going to develop in other folders, so it's not a
permanent fix.

Another user responded to my original post, citing exactly the same
symptoms. Is this a known bug which might get fixed, please?

Thanks

JB