File in Use - filename.xls is locked for editing by ' '.

[Barkley Bees]

Here's a bit of an odd one. We have a report from one group of users about
an issue they are having with opening files in a particular directory on one
of our file servers (Windows Server 2003 SP1 in 2003 Domain).

When the user (client is Windows xP SP2, Office 2003) attempts to open an
excel file in this directory that is opened by another user, they get the
usual "File in Use" prompt (with - Read Only, Notify and Cancel as options).
Usually in such a situation it will say "Filename.xls is locked for editing
by 'username'." but for some reaon the username variable does not appear
here only empty single quotes (by ' '.).

I realize this may be somewhat obscure but has anyone seen similar behaviour
in the past and found the cause? Appreciate any feedback.

*note, I attempted the following:

- access said file from a fresh test machine and experienced the same
result.
- created a new excel worksheet in this directory and opened it on a client
system. Then attempted to open it from the test machine. The username that
had the file open did appear correctly in this case.

 

[AltaEgo]

I had a similar problem with Excel 2003 running on Vista and only after we
switched to Vista. Strangely, the username locking the file I was trying to
open was sometimes reported to be me!!! This problem occurred sporadically
in shared drives only (i.e. no reports of locking in my personal drive).
Logging on at another machine or having an alternate user try to access the
file produced the same type of response.

I never did resolve the issue but found it usually went away after logging
off at night and back on the following day (but not always when logging
off/on the same day). I initially suspected a LAN problem but ruled it out
because it was limited to Excel workbooks and not other MS Office document
types but, have no concrete reason to rule LAN either in or out.