Help! File locked for editing.

[LAF]

We have a user (one out of about 7000) that is trying to run our Exce
spreadsheet and when he opens it, he is getting a message that say
File is locked for editing by..., then he opens it in Read only. W
can't find the file open anywhere else and the attributes of the fil
are not set to read-only. Is there anything else we can look for?
It's as if the file is out there open somewhere on his machine, bu
hidden. We also checked in Excel under the Window menu item to see i
there are any hidden files, but none exist. Help!
Another problem the user is getting is that when he closes the file
it prompts him for the VBA password and it's not even saving the exce
spreadsheet

 

[AllanRyanGeorge]

- Open Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del)
- click on "Processes" tab
- If "EXCEL.EXE" is there, end the process

A previous instance of the application could have taken an exceptio
when interacting with the file and still be running in the background.

If the above statement does not apply to your situation, you can see i
somebody on the network is accessing the file by going to Control Pane

Administrative Tools > Computer Management > System Tools > Share

Folders > Open Files. Feel free to boot the person who doesn't want t
give up the file


Regards,
Allan Georg

 

[Gord Dibben]

LAF

Excel stores in Windows\Temp(win98) folder a copy(s) of any file
that is open.

Sometimes this *.tmp file is not deleted from the Temp folder when
you close out Excel(maybe a crash of Excel?) or the file, so Excel
thinks it is still open and locked for editing.

You can try a re-boot of that user's machine and see if that clears it up. If
not, after a re-boot, clear out user's Windows\Temp folder.

If using WinXP the Temp folder would be under user.......

Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp

If on a network, re-booting the server may be the only solution.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP