Merge Rep - Partition Jumping

Hello,

We are merge replicating data from a server to client servers. The publication has a static row filter. If a change is made on the client to the field defining the partition, we are seeing a problem. After a synch, the record is deleted from the client. Here are more specifics:

There are work orders created on the branch office server with a status of "Scheduled". These are replicated to the main office server upon a synch. Only records with a status of 'Scheduled' are replicated to the central server. If the client server changes the status from 'Scheduled' to unscheduled, the record then falls outside of the partition defined by the row filter.

Upon synch, the change in status is sent to the server. The server shows the updated record status. The 2nd part of the merge process notes that the record has fallen outside of the row filter and instructs the client to delete the record.

It appeared that setting @allow_partition_realignment to false would fix this. Setting @allow_partition_realignment to false requires that the publication be a download only publication. This doesn't work for the application.

We are unable to make the client server's the publisher as many of these are running SQL Express.

The answer is possibly in the many options used to setup merge rep. Possibly some pre or post rep routine is needed.

Does anyone have any direction on this ?