"Disk is full" error with Word after 10.4.2 upgrade

[Paul Huber]

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors
(http://groups-beta.google.com/group...eb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

 

[Semmler, Sven]

Are there any known workarounds besides disabling the sharing / closing
other applications?

I just switched from Windows to Mac and my current task is writing a design
specification in Word. This error drives me crazy, since I have to deal with
it every 10-15 save attempts.

/Sven

Am 26.07.2005 12:22 Uhr schrieb "John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word

Thanks Paul:

I have sent that in to the MS developers who are looking at this problem.

No: You are the first to manage to narrow it specifically to 10.4.2, but
yes, there have been a lot of problems with this.

They are working on it as a Severity 1 issue. They WILL fix it, but it may
take a bit longer, since the bug keeps moving around as Apple makes updates.

Patience...

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors

(http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/browse_>>
t

hread/thread/0e62beb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

 

[ABFM]

I too am getting this issue... as well with the other MS Office Apps in
2004 >SMB remote Home> OS 10.4.2 (New Purchases- Ran Update), Norton
Antivirus 9 (looking immediately to upgrade to v10).

Excel won't save - get error saying:
MS Excel cannot access the file 'Users:usernameocuments'.

There are several reasons:
· File name or path does not exist.
· The file you are trying to open is being used by another program.
Close the document in the other....try again
· The name of the workbook you are trying to save is the same as the
name of another document that is read-only. Try saving w/ different
name

OK

PowerPoint won't save (and locally too!)- get error saying:

There was an error accessing the disk containing
USERS:usernameocumentsresentation1TEST.

To fix this problem, use the FINDER to see if you have access
privileges for the file or folder.
OK

All others having this problem???

When does the end of the summer SR Update come out? I've been waiting
since February!!!!

THX

Allyn

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Sven,

I confess that I absolutely don't understand network server issues (and
terminology!) so what I'm about to suggest may be totally irrelevant to your
situation, but see John McGhie's earlier reply on another thread called
"Intermittent save problems". If that doesn't apply to you then I'm sure
John will have more to say when he returns here.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

Are there any known workarounds besides disabling the sharing / closing
other applications?

I just switched from Windows to Mac and my current task is writing a design
specification in Word. This error drives me crazy, since I have to deal with
it every 10-15 save attempts.

/Sven

Am 26.07.2005 12:22 Uhr schrieb "John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word

Thanks Paul:

I have sent that in to the MS developers who are looking at this problem.

No: You are the first to manage to narrow it specifically to 10.4.2, but
yes, there have been a lot of problems with this.

They are working on it as a Severity 1 issue. They WILL fix it, but it may
take a bit longer, since the bug keeps moving around as Apple makes updates.

Patience...

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors

(http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/browse_>>

t

hread/thread/0e62beb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

 

[CyberTaz]

To all who refer to Norton-

Before you put any more money into Symantec product for Mac, I _strongly_
suggest that you check out the postings over the lat 2 years on the Apple
Discussions Forums re OS X & Norton.

In a nutshell, Norton is Poison to OS X... This is not my opinion, but the
sum total of reports in the Mac community and echoed by some (most if not
all) of the most highly respected technical people around.

The irritating thing is that Symantec won't provide any support since they
announced same some time back, yet they continue to market a product along
with "updates" that cause more damage than they resolve. The permissions
issue mentioned by Paul in his post is just one of the lesser evils.

FWIW |:>)

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Are you on a network? If so, try moving your Normal template from
~/documents/Microsoft User Data to a different (non-Network) location using
Word>Preferences

(I.e. Go to Word>Preferences>File Locations>User Templates and change it to
(e.g.) ::/Aplications/Microsoft Office 2004/Templates)

Then Quit Word, move the Normal Template to the new folder and re-launch.

Cheers

Are there any known workarounds besides disabling the sharing / closing
other applications?

I just switched from Windows to Mac and my current task is writing a design
specification in Word. This error drives me crazy, since I have to deal with
it every 10-15 save attempts.

/Sven

Am 26.07.2005 12:22 Uhr schrieb "John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word

Thanks Paul:

I have sent that in to the MS developers who are looking at this problem.

No: You are the first to manage to narrow it specifically to 10.4.2, but
yes, there have been a lot of problems with this.

They are working on it as a Severity 1 issue. They WILL fix it, but it may
take a bit longer, since the bug keeps moving around as Apple makes updates.

Patience...

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors

(http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/browse_>>

t

hread/thread/0e62beb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Uninstall all of Norton and see if you still have the problem.

If so, use Disk Utility to repair permissions.

If it was just word doing it, I would give you a different answer. But
since it's all applications, there's a larger problem...

I too am getting this issue... as well with the other MS Office Apps in
2004 >SMB remote Home> OS 10.4.2 (New Purchases- Ran Update), Norton
Antivirus 9 (looking immediately to upgrade to v10).

Excel won't save - get error saying:
MS Excel cannot access the file 'Users:usernameocuments'.

There are several reasons:
· File name or path does not exist.
· The file you are trying to open is being used by another program.
Close the document in the other....try again
· The name of the workbook you are trying to save is the same as the
name of another document that is read-only. Try saving w/ different
name

OK


PowerPoint won't save (and locally too!)- get error saying:

There was an error accessing the disk containing
USERS:usernameocumentsresentation1TEST.

To fix this problem, use the FINDER to see if you have access
privileges for the file or folder.
OK

All others having this problem???

When does the end of the summer SR Update come out? I've been waiting
since February!!!!

THX

Allyn

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Sven Semmler]

Are you on a network?

Well I am connected to a network, but I work locally (both document and
template). I am not using any Norton product nor any other AntiVirus
software. My environment is ...

Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.2
Word:mac 2004 11.1 (040910)

I would not have this problem, if I had not updated my Mac OS X from
10.4 to 10.4.2 ?

/Sven

 

[MacFan]

I have been experiencing the same issue and DO NOT have any Norton
products on the machine.

The only solution that I have found is to save the word documents in RTF
As for EXCEL the XML save option seems to work and PowerPoint use the
Outline rtf.

These will all save to the network.
If you can get to the network with a machine that is not bound to the
network you can recover the files and convert them in the standard
format.

Ron

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors

(http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/browse_t
hread/thread/0e62beb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Ron,

I just responded to a similar post on another thread as follows:

This is (unfortunately) a common problem. Something changed in Tiger that
causes this problem in Word. Both Apple and Microsoft are aware of the
problem and are looking for solutions. I would hope that an update will
address this issue soon!

In the meantime, there's a workaround that may help. This is from a
previous post by John McGhie:

------------------------
Check that your user home folder is not on the same server as a mounted
server.

If it is, when Word plays up, unmount your home folder. Word will then
complete the save.

It appears that in OS 10.4.2, the server locks a file in the user's home
folder TWICE, once along the home folder path, and again along the mounted
path. When Word tries to Save, the server rejects the write operation
because it reports that the file is locked for edit along the other path.

This will not apply to all users, and is more prevalent if the server is
mounted by SMB or AFB
-------------------------

I don't understand server issues myself, so hopefully this will make sense
to you. If not, John should be back here before long to give more details.

HTH

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

I have been experiencing the same issue and DO NOT have any Norton
products on the machine.

The only solution that I have found is to save the word documents in RTF
As for EXCEL the XML save option seems to work and PowerPoint use the
Outline rtf.

These will all save to the network.
If you can get to the network with a machine that is not bound to the
network you can recover the files and convert them in the standard
format.

Ron

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors

(http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/browse_>>
t

hread/thread/0e62beb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

 

[MacFan]

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors

(http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/browse_t
hread/thread/0e62beb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

No. Make sure you apply the latest patches from Apple. Each one improves
the situation a little. But the definitive patch for the problem has yet to
be released.

We previously had been getting the naming/permissions errors

(http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/browse_>>
t

hread/thread/0e62beb7ac8738c0/11fc7b5ff0da38bc#11fc7b5ff0da38bc),
and disabling Norton's scanning of the SMB home directories has solved
that problem.

After upgrading to 10.4.2, under nearly the same circumstances (users
have Office 2004 with all the updates, and are saving to remote SMB
volumes) a new error message comes up: "The disk is full or too many
files are open". Thinking it was still from Norton, I set-up a clean
machine that Norton had never touched, but the error still occured. I
started with a fresh machine again and tested saves to remote SMB
volumes with each system upgrade (doing 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 separately),
and the only time the error occurs is once 10.4.2 has been installed.
[On a side-note, 10.4 and 10.4.1 without Norton installed did not have
any of the previous permissions errors!]

Once again, the current "fix" that I have been able to offer our users
is to have them save in some other format other than .doc. As long as
it is something else, 10.4.2 and Word 2004 will let the user save to
the remote SMB volume without error.

Anyone else having this problem, or aware of any solutions?

Thanks!
Paul Huber

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Paul Huber]

Couple of quick updates to how things are going for us.

We have had to "fix" the problem for our users -- computers have had
the network homes disabled and moved to local homes which does solve
the problems. (On the side note, we have had quite a time explaining
to users how to move documents to their still-accessable former network
home so that they can access that document from another computer.)

On machines configured to test possible solutions: no anti-virus is
installed. All Apple patches are installed. John McGhie's suggestion
of changing the template location did NOT solve the problem, but it did
change what was going on.
Before the template move (with network homes on SMB volume,
automatically connected via Active Directory and not seen as a volume),
users would save the file, get the spinning beach ball for anywhere
from 30 seconds to 2 minutes while the computer worked on saving the
file, then would get the message "The disk is full or too many files
are open."
After the template move (same network homes) users would save the file
and almost immediately get the message "The disk is full or too many
files are open."

So that part is a definate improvement

On a side note, I don't think that the Microsoft Office 11.2 update was
meant to solve this problem. I thought that I would just confirm that
the problems do continue after the update has been applied.

Microsoft folks -- thanks for your work towards trying to find a
solution to this problem.

Paul Huber

 

[Jeff Wiseman]

Hi Ron,

I just responded to a similar post on another thread as follows:

This is (unfortunately) a common problem. Something changed in Tiger that
causes this problem in Word. Both Apple and Microsoft are aware of the

How much you wanna bet this is either a Spotlight indexing
problem or related to the new file structure issues in Tiger? I'm
not really that familiar with Tiger, but because of all these
very problems which I've read about on these issues, I'm staying
with Panther for the time being.

Part of the Norton and Virex "problems" has to do with the fact
they are running around the entire system in the background
accessing files. This can create deadlocks and glare conditions
(either through file access or permissions manipulations) with
other processes that need those files and their supporting
directory structures if those processes have not been implemented
correctly.

Spotlight's indexing does something very similar--running around
all of creation reading all files, indexing them, and updating
files and file structures based on what it sees--and all this
concurrently with the running of your applications such as Mac
Office which is also notorious for accessing many files and
clipboards concurently. Again, if this is not done correctly (or
if other applications on the system are not doing it
appropriately) deadlocks and other race conditions can occur. I'm
not sure of the details for the differences in the new Tiger
filesystem other than I know it can make it rather incompatible
with the Panther OS. However, the changes are in this same
problem domain (i.e., concurrent filesystem access).

So this is purely a guess, but I would try shutting off Spotlight
and it's background (indexing) processes, restarting the machine,
and see if that stabilizes anything. It should be an easy test.

If that doesn't change anything, then the problems may lay in the
new file system constructs of Tiger and will take some digging by
the developers to find.