I would like to know if folder redirection syncs files from a server to the local client or if files are only stored on a server and would be unavailable if a user was disconnected from the network?
Depends how you set it up. You can set it up s that the files are only available on the server, or that they’re available on the server and the client.
The option to set them up to be available on the client and the server is called Offline Files, because it makes the files available when the user’s not connected to the LAN, and there are a number of configurations under there you can set for how the files sync between the server and the client.
Assuming you’re doing this by GPO, you’d go to Computer Configuration –> Policies –> Administrative Templates –> Network –> Offline Files to set the offline files behavior. (And, of course, since it’s under the Administrative Templates, it requires the Group Policy Administrative Templates.) The Technet article for general Folder Redirection via GPO is here, and I’ve included a screenshot of the Offline Files GPO below.
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