What does Windows error code 8220 (ERROR_POLICY_ONLY_IN_DS) mean?

ERROR_POLICY_ONLY_IN_DS

The requested policy information is only in the directory service.

ERROR_POLICY_ONLY_IN_DS is Win32 error 8220 (0x0000201C) and concerns policy information that exists only in Active Directory.

What to verify

Verify whether the caller queries a directory service capable of returning the requested policy data. Check requested policy field, local versus domain policy source, and domain and DC discovery result.

Likely causes

• the caller uses a local policy source for domain-only information.
• no directory service is reachable.
• the machine is not in the expected domain context.
• the API was asked to satisfy a domain policy request offline.

Troubleshooting steps

1. Collect requested policy field.
2. Record local versus domain policy source.

Handling, retry, and recovery

Query the directory-backed policy source using current domain context and handle offline operation explicitly.

Related errors

ERROR_POLICY_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND reaches the directory but cannot find the object; this code says the selected non-directory source cannot provide the information

Example

A laptop tool requests a domain-only policy while offline and queries only local policy. It defers the result until a DC is available instead of treating the field as absent.

References

• Microsoft: Win32 system error range containing this code
• Microsoft: AD DS troubleshooting
• Microsoft: repadmin
• Microsoft: dcdiag
• Microsoft: AD and LDS diagnostic event logging