File.xls is locked for editing by me but I am not using the file .

[rmtaylor]

Hi
I have an Excel spreadsheet that I share with another local office. When I try and open it, it says that it is locked for editing by me when I know this is not the case.
Excel will not allow me to open the sheet unless its in read-only mode. The last time this occurred I solved it by saving the file under a new name, consequently I had to reset shortcuts for the six others who impute data onto the sheet.
Any assistance to help me to solve this would be appreciated.

Thanks & regards
Robert

 

[mole999]

not sure I know enough about this. If you can download and install then try Belarc Advisor (its free and useful), provides all sorts of information. I would be tempted to see what is shown under the window office install, do all installations use the same serial number. I'd be tempted to shut all the machines down to see if that clear Jane Doe off the network. Maybe your Network admin can identify where Jane pops up. The issue is more prominent when staff just lock their pc's rather than shutting down, so the file is open but not in use

 

[mole999]

mole999: Does that make sense if we're only talking about a problem with 1 excel file? We don't have this issue for any other shared excel files.

if its just a share, kick Jane off

 

[becig]

if its just a share, kick Jane off

I'm not sure you understand the problem. It's only showing the file is locked for editing if someone is in it unlike the original complaint of this thread. But no matter who it is, person A, B or C, then it will always say that person C is in it. Even if they have not opened it that day (this person is part time and it says she is in it on her days off, even though person B is in it). It has not always done this, it has been happening for a few weeks now. It just means you can't tell who is in it so you can ask them to close it if you want to use it.

 

[Intelligent solution]

In my case the file is on a shared drive. I copied the file and pasted in on the desktop. Edited it without issues and saved the file without any issue. Also saved the file on the shared drive with a slightly different name and all good. I hope it helps for you too.

 

[JayBurn]

I used to have this issue at my last place of employment, the issue was being caused by a sluggish network. Upon trying to open a workbook (or any other type of file) it would come up with the file being in use either by me or 'Unknown user'. From what I could gather, it was the slow network creating a kind of ghost effect, almost like the computer was opening files so slowly that by the time it actually loaded the file thought it was already open.

The only way I could access most files would be to select 'Notify' as the option when it's opening and wait for the network to catch up and send through the read-write notification.