>>- looking at the registry setting names, it seems they might help with my issue because it seems the settings would force the OS to re-read the files every time. Any opinions on this from others?
>I don't think there's any value trying to read anything into the names of registry keys/values. Best to look up documentation for them if you're so inclined.
I found this article which is helpful. It explains the 3 keys.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-7/ff686200(v=ws.10)Interesting that the default setting is 10 seconds for 2 of them and 5 for another. The recommendation by Alaska Software is to go to zero - which makes sense if there is any index corruption (basically, always re-fetch the file metadata on every potential write). In this case, there has never been any corruption but just these instances when the user reports the system cannot find child records - which might be because their PC "thinks" that it has the latest cache of the table rows but it does not [on the other hand, the user inserted these rows so not sure why VFP did not either *have* the latest values or that it did not flush the cache itself...hmmm]).
So it would seem that these settings could be rachetted down from 10 seconds to maybe 2 or 3 and it *might* improve the situation without getting rid of all cached data (whether having 2 or 3 seconds of caching helps or not, that is open to debate). The safest thing would be to set it to zero and see if all instances of the problem disappear and if it does not seem to too adversely affect performance for the app (and other applications), leave it as such.
It also seems in reading this that in their situation (where this is no index corruption) that if it is just a few particular users (which it is) to apply the setting to their PC first and see if it helps - since it is only a client side setting.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-7/ff686200(v=ws.10)This posting seemed to have a well-informed person responding and they suggest trying adding the keys one by one instead of all (this might be the case if the person was getting a "file not found" problem especially):
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/windowsserver/en-US/67baa9fd-5eaf-438e-9cc4-dc1a531b9e19/disabling-oplocksmb2-vs-fileinfocachelifetime>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
For my own record (so I don't have to go digging elsewhere, here are the keys and the thread here were posted):
from thread: 1584660
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters]
"DirectoryCacheLifetime"=dword:00000000
"FileNotFoundCacheLifetime"=dword:00000000
"FileInfoCacheLifetime"=dword:00000000
