Excel file is now a "Read Only"

  • Thread starter Thread starter L. Howard Kittle
  • Start date Start date
L

L. Howard Kittle

Hi Excel Experts and Users,

Win XP, Excel 2002

I have a file that has become a Read Only file and don't know how or why.
The alert box says the file is in use by someone else and choices are accept
the read only status or Notify when the file is available etc...

What gives with this? This is a home computer with one other computer
networked in another room. The other computer, my wife's, does not use
Excel although I assume it is available there, Excel 97 I think. The only
thing I can think of is that it may be the result of trying to download some
functions from an MVP's site. I was unable to make that happen, not too
swift in that kind of stuff, so I asked my wife to give it a go. She played
around with it for several minutes and was not successful so I told her to
just dump everything, which she did. Since then the problem.

I had Excel open of course when I was attempting to download but I don't
believe this file was open. I have copied the file and can use the copy
just fine. Tried to delete the old file but you already know that you
cannot delete a file in use.

Your thoughts please.

Thanks,
Howard
 
Was the file open during a crash by any chance? Try cleaning out the temp
folders on both machines, rebooting them and then reopening the file. When you
open an Excel file, Windows creates a temp file for it and then I think when you
save and close, it will save that version and delete the original. If however,
the machine crashes whilst it is open, the temp does not get deleted and next
time you try to open it, the existence of the file makes Windows think it is
already open. <please correct me anybody if I screwed any of that up>. If the
file is on a server, and the server crashes whilst it is open, then I believe
anybody trying to access the file on that server will get that message.
 
By the way, what were you trying to download? If it's not too big then I'll
happily do it for you and email it over as an attachment.
 
Hi Ken,

Thanks for your advice, I know you are an expert in many aspects of the
Excel and the computer realm. I am not, but do muck around in Excel a bit
and do a few contirbutions. I have done the flush of temp files, etc... and
rebooted. No good news.

I'm sorry to say I do not remember what I was trying to down load. It was
an MPV's version of a function that looked at the VLOOKUP value and in the
formula if it said 2, then the second value in the lookup array was
returned. So the lookup value may have appeared twice or more and the
formula told it to return the second values offset.

Still lost, but hey... aren't we all sometimes. Just deleting the old file
would be OK but I ain't getting no satisfaction there either!

Thanks Ken,
Regards,
Howard
 
Which temp files did you empty?

The c:\windows\temp or the c:\documents & settings\your name\local
settings\temp?

(to get to the 2nd one you need to make sure you have hidden and system files
showing as the local settings directory is hidden)

I always empty both when I have problems like this.


: Hi Ken,
:
: Thanks for your advice, I know you are an expert in many aspects of the
: Excel and the computer realm. I am not, but do muck around in Excel a bit
: and do a few contirbutions. I have done the flush of temp files, etc... and
: rebooted. No good news.
:
: I'm sorry to say I do not remember what I was trying to down load. It was
: an MPV's version of a function that looked at the VLOOKUP value and in the
: formula if it said 2, then the second value in the lookup array was
: returned. So the lookup value may have appeared twice or more and the
: formula told it to return the second values offset.
:
: Still lost, but hey... aren't we all sometimes. Just deleting the old file
: would be OK but I ain't getting no satisfaction there either!
:
: Thanks Ken,
: Regards,
: Howard
:
: : > Hi Excel Experts and Users,
: >
: > Win XP, Excel 2002
: >
: > I have a file that has become a Read Only file and don't know how or why.
: > The alert box says the file is in use by someone else and choices are
: accept
: > the read only status or Notify when the file is available etc...
: >
: > What gives with this? This is a home computer with one other computer
: > networked in another room. The other computer, my wife's, does not use
: > Excel although I assume it is available there, Excel 97 I think. The only
: > thing I can think of is that it may be the result of trying to download
: some
: > functions from an MVP's site. I was unable to make that happen, not too
: > swift in that kind of stuff, so I asked my wife to give it a go. She
: played
: > around with it for several minutes and was not successful so I told her to
: > just dump everything, which she did. Since then the problem.
: >
: > I had Excel open of course when I was attempting to download but I don't
: > believe this file was open. I have copied the file and can use the copy
: > just fine. Tried to delete the old file but you already know that you
: > cannot delete a file in use.
: >
: > Your thoughts please.
: >
: > Thanks,
: > Howard
: >
: >
:
:
 
Hi Lady,

I just did the first. I'll give your suggestion a try.

Thank you.

Howard
 
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