Now I am getting a "File in Use" error

[JenniferMurphy]

When I got up this morning, my laptop was off. When I went to bed last night, it was running with quite a few programs open: Outlook (2-3 views), Excel (4-5 workbooks), Word (3-4 documents), Firefox (5-6 windows), File Explorer (4-5 windows), and one or two other programs.

Firefox was able to restore everything. Outlook seems to have recovered. Word seems to have recovered.

Excel did its usual crappy recovery where it shows me 1-3 versions of each workbook. I then have to try to figure out how to sort it all out manually. But today it has a new annoying twist. If I try to open any of the "recovered" workbooks, I get this error pop-up.

I did a little research and found this page:

Redirecting

answers.microsoft.com

It refers to this page:

"The document is locked for editing by another user" error message when you try to open a document in Word - Microsoft Support

Explains that you receive an error message when you open a Word document. This issue may occur if Word did not quit correctly, or if another instance of Word has opened the document. You may have to end the Winword.exe process to resolve the issue.

support.microsoft.com

It has a detailed step-by-step process for clearing this problem. Has anyone tried this? Is it safe? Does it work? Is there something better?

Thanks

I previously started this related thread, but thought this should be a new one:

What is causing Excel 365 to crash so often?

I am literally getting to hate M$FT. Since upgrading to Office 365 and Windows 11, several office apps will hang/freeze or crash more or less often. Excel is the worst. I just crashed on me. I had 4-5 workbooks open. I had rearranged some columns in a table and then decided I liked it better...

www.mrexcel.com

 

[Jeffrey Mahoney]

This happens to me a lot. Connections to your server or Sharepoint make it hard for Excel to remove the temporary file that get's created when you open a file. The file name has "~$" added to the front. If this file is locked by the server, so is your workbook. Sometimes it can be cleared if you log off and log back in. Sometimes, it takes a day or 2 to clear.

 

[JenniferMurphy]

I just started getting a series of these pop-up messages:

Did Excel sort itself out on its own?

 

[Jeffrey Mahoney]

Yes, the server released the file from being locked.

 

[JenniferMurphy]

This happens to me a lot. Connections to your server or Sharepoint make it hard for Excel to remove the temporary file that get's created when you open a file. The file name has "~$" added to the front. If this file is locked by the server, so is your workbook. Sometimes it can be cleared if you log off and log back in. Sometimes, it takes a day or 2 to clear.

I have OneDrive, but wish I didn't. As far as I know, I do not have Sharepoint. I don't even know what this is. I don't think we have a "server". We have an office 365 "family" subscription. The two of us share our Outlook calendars, but nothing else as far as I know. Does that qualify as a server?

Frankly, I have zero sympathy or patience with M$FT re how "hard" it is for Excel to recover. This is all M$FT code. They need to learn how to test their junk before they release it.

I am about ready to move to a Mac. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.................

 

[JenniferMurphy]

Yes, the server released the file from being locked.

What server is that? As far as I know, we don't have a server. None of these files are on OneDrive.

 

[Jeffrey Mahoney]

One drive is your companies way to save all your application and files into a cloud so you can log into your account from any computer. One drive will cause this issue. To fix it you can save your files to a folder NOT in the documents folder. From the C Drive ROOT, create a new folder. What it though, this won't get backed up nor be available from any other laptop than the one you use.

Jeff

 

[Jeffrey Mahoney]

Well, if the files are already on your local drive, then restarting your computer should solve the issue.

 

[JenniferMurphy]

One drive is your companies way to save all your application and files into a cloud so you can log into your account from any computer. One drive will cause this issue. To fix it you can save your files to a folder NOT in the documents folder. From the C Drive ROOT, create a new folder. What it though, this won't get backed up nor be available from any other laptop than the one you use.

Jeff

I am retired, so there is no "company". I don't count on OneDrive for backup. I have Carbonite for that.

 

[Jeffrey Mahoney]

I disabled One Drive on my personal laptop. I know how you feel.