Group Policy Files - Active Directory

I am having a whole lot of trouble getting some files distributed across the network. My settings are:

Action: Replace
Source: \\[fqdn]\Repo\sqljdbcl.jar
Destination: %ProgramFiles%\Java\jre1.8.0_25\lib\ext\sqljdbc.jar

Attributes:
Read Only

Common:
All unchecked, no targeting

The error I am receiving is from event viewer, application log:

The computer 'sqljdbc.jar' preference item in the 'Default Domain Policy 
{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}' 

Group Policy object did not apply because it failed with error code '0x80070003 

The system cannot find the path specified.' This error was suppressed.

What's strange to me is that I am able to copy another file from that same folder, using the same path and same settings, but to a different destination folder.

What's even stranger is that on the target computers, the file appears to be at the appropriate destination and the appropriate size, but with zero functionality.

This is a very common mistake. The problem is the %ProgramFiles% environmental variable. Group Policy Preferences has its own set of environmental variables, which are different than what you're used to. Please see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753915.aspx for more information. You can also press F3 in any Group Policy Preferences dialog to see this list. You probably want to use %ProgramFilesDir% instead. The access denied error is common when the path you're trying to access doesn't exist.