What does NTSTATUS 0xC000029F (STATUS_NO_TRACKING_SERVICE) mean?

 
Previous Next
STATUS_REMOTE_STORAGE_MEDIA_ERROR STATUS_SERVER_SID_MISMATCH

STATUS_NO_TRACKING_SERVICE

The failure is in distributed link tracking, not ordinary path lookup

STATUS_NO_TRACKING_SERVICE refers to the workstation tracking service used by Distributed Link Tracking. Windows object identifiers can be attached to files or directories on a volume, and the Distributed Link Tracking client/server mechanism uses identity information to help locate moved link targets. This is different from resolving a path by name each time.

Microsoft documents that shell link resolution can use Distributed Link Tracking when available, and IShellLink::Resolve provides SLR_NOTRACK to suppress the tracking service. Object IDs are internal metadata and Microsoft warns against modifying them casually with fsutil objectid. The status therefore should not be “fixed” by assigning a new object ID to the target file.

Confirm whether the failing operation actually requested tracking-based resolution, which machine is the workstation/client, and whether the relevant tracking service is running. Test ordinary path access separately from link tracking. Preserve the shortcut/link metadata and target object ID before recreating anything. If an application can legitimately fall back to non-tracking resolution, use its documented option; otherwise restore the service/dependency rather than rewriting identities that other links may rely on.

What to inspect

  • Distinguish “target path not found” from “tracking service unavailable” by testing direct path access separately.
  • Record the link object, target volume, and tracking/service state on the workstation performing resolution.
  • Do not generate or modify object IDs as a generic repair for this service-state failure.

References

Looking for a different code? Search another status or error code.