Document is Locked, Read Only, or In Use by Other User

Issue

When opening or saving a document, an error messages occurs stating that the document is read only, or that it is in use by another user.

Sample Error Message:  [document] is locked for editing by [User]. Open Read Only or click Notify to open read only and receive notification when the document is no longer in use.

Environment

• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft Office
  • Excel
  • Word
  • PowerPoint

Information

This error message can occur for multiple reasons, including if you are working on a document saved on a network drive (S: or J: drive) and your computer has gone to sleep. A temporary file is created by Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) indicating that you have the document open. When the computer reconnects to that network drive the file does not get deleted as it normally would if the application/document had been closed. This leads the application to believe that the file is still open and in use by another user, and will request that you create a copy of the document.

Additional Information can be found on Microsoft's Website.

Resolution

As a best practice, you should save and close the document you are working on before locking and allowing your computer to go into sleep mode. If necessary, you can delete the temporary file created by the application. Although not ideal, you should always try and save to document locally while making edits, and then drag and drop/overwrite the file saved on the S: drive.

1. Save or copy the file to local storage
   • e.g. My Documents, Desktop, etc.
2. Once the desired edits/changes have been made, copy and paste or drag/drop the file back on to the S: drive, electing to overwrite the existing file.
   • If you are unable to overwrite the file because the document states it is in use, simply append a number or give it an alternate name until the S: drive allows you to delete the old file.

If the locked file fails to delete after a copy was made, and the owner file is not present, create a ticket for Infrastructure to delete the locked file. Make sure to specify the correct pathway to the file.