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Working from Home - Common problems

There are strange files in my folders, which Word or Excel can't openDot files

If you see files whose names begin with a dot, a tilde (~) or a dollar sign, these are temporary files used by Microsoft Office. Your documents should be in the same folder, but with the full correct filename. Dot files are created by Apple workstations (MacBook, etc) when they browse a folder. Tilde and dollar files are created when a file is opened for editing.

I can't transfer files over 50MB

File size limitThere is a built-in file transfer size limit of 50MB on some workstations when using MyFiles WebDAV. This can be changed, please contact the Service Desk and ask for Application Delivery to change the settings on your workstation to allow larger files to be transferred.

I can see some folders but lots are missing

If you can see all your files and folders using MyFiles Web, but your VPN view is different, you could have "Offline Files" enabled. When your network connection gets unreliable or slow, your workstation may go into offline mode. Please contact our Application Delivery team through the Service Desk - they will be able to help with this.

I get "Access Denied" when using Microsoft Office 365, but I have only just changed my password

When you change your password , sometimes this change is not properly transferred to Office 365. Your copy of Windows can retain a copy of your old credentials, and when trying to use these to access files with O365/WebDAV, it fails.

  • Open Control Panel and go to Credentials Manager
  • Clear any Web or Windows credentials that reference O365, Office, Word, Excel etc.
  • We no longer recommend WebDAV for remote access, and it will be disabled in early 2023. Please connect to the VPN and use the normal M: and H: connections to access your files.

Note: The password change may also cause problems elsewhere on your Managed Desktop, so you may still need to contact our Application Delivery team to be sure everything is working.

My files and folders are missing, but others can see them

The full path length of a file (including all folders and the file name itself) cannot total more than 255 characters. If one file in a folder exceeds this limit, then when the folder is viewed with a WebDAV folder mount, the folder will appear to be completely empty. To fix this, you need to shorten one or more of the folder names leading up to the file.