# Publisher files locked



## snoman67 (Oct 30, 2004)

We are running Office 2000 Pro on our computers. We have three computers on a LAN. File sharing is turned on on all three. When we try to open some older Publisher files, we get the "file locked. File is in use by another user or program" even when there are no other users. But his applies only on files created after October 2006. We can't see any parameter that suggests the file is locked and we have no problems with Word files.
This problem is driving us nuts! Any suggestions? How does the "locked file" message get generated?
The files can be opened on the computer that created them.


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## gistek (May 8, 2007)

sometimes a ~filename placeholder file doesn't get deleted when the file is closed. Occasionally Office Apps will see these ~files and think a file is already open when it really isn't.

Open a window to the file location and check for any ~ files. If they are not from the day you are looking at them, delete them. (some may not delete, don't worry when that happens, it just means they are actively linked to a file).

Work-Around: If deleting the ~ files doesn't work, open the file you want as a read Only and save it as a slight variation filename (I add the date to the filename to distinguish it from the original).

You should then be able to delete the read-only version and any associated ~ files, rename the new file to the old filename (if that's important) and proceed as if there was never any problem.


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## Zazula (Apr 27, 2006)

In addition to gistek's suggestions, please consider the following as well:

a. These Publisher files may be in a folder which is open in a Windows Explorer instance showing Details view. Windows Explorer reads the contents of the files in the folder to obtain the additional details. If a program tries to open a file exclusively and Windows Explorer has the network file open to extract this additional file information, a sharing violation occurs.

b. You may be trying to open those files from within Windows Explorer. Don't forget that Windows Explorer keeps files open when extracting thumbnails for them. Sometimes you may have closed the file in Publisher, yet Windows Explorer keeps it open thus producing a share violation when another user attempts to open it afterwards.

c. A program or process, such as an antivirus program, may have the file locked. Also, try disabling network drive scanning in your antivirus program. Moreover, WinXP typically block files coming from other computers:









d. The permissions may have not been set right for the other users, or there exists a prevailing policy.

e. Even searching across a network can leave open files (the Microsoft Office Indexing filter Offfilt.dll may leak file handles when you search from the shell).

f. Last but not least, pleas consider downloading the Office 2000 Customizable Alerts Info Button, in order to receive a more analytical error report and post it back.


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