How do you troubleshoot a portable home directory that’s not syncing?

[mkalien]

System: 10.4.3 client, 10.4.2 server

Yesterday, I created a group for mobile users on the OD Master and set the preferences for that group to allow “Synchronize account for offline use” and “Require confirmation before creating a mobile account.” I then added the OD Master to the search path in Directory Access on my powerbook. I did NOT add the powerbook to any computer list in WGM. I logged in with my network account, accepted the prompt to create a mobile user account and my network home folder was successfully synced down to my laptop.

Now, I then copied over all my local user files from /Users/oldAccount to /Users/mobileAccount including what was in the ~/Library folder. Now my account never syncs. I can tell it to manually sync and a dialogue box pops up and I guess thinks everythings synced and never copies files either direction.

I’m having a hard time finding documentation on how portable home directories work. Are there plists or other files involved to tell my powerbook when to sync and rules to follow when syncing? Did I destroy mobile user account data when I copied over the ~/Library folder?

[mkalien]

I think I found some of the answers. I noticed there was a ~/Library/Mirrors directory. I think .Mac users are already aware of this directory because the only information I could find on it was from macosxhints.com. Anyway, I renamed the folder, forced a few more mobility preferences from WGM and restarted my powerbook. It’s syncing again.

Anyone know of any documentation on the following files?
~/Library/Mirrors
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MirrorAgent.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.homeSync.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.syncservices.ConflictResolver.plist

If I needed to fix some professor’s mobile user account, would trashing all the above preferences and restarting the machine clear out any damage he might have done?

[Author]

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