Document 'in use' errors in Word

[mr.blair]

Hello, I'm being plagued by errors that tell my users the documents
they're trying to open are "being used by 'another user'. Do you want
to make a copy?" - then on saving they get "This file is in use by
another application or user."

I am the sys-admin at a K-12 school - we're running OSX 10.4.7 Server
on the server-side, using Workgroup-Manager managed client computers
all of which are running 10.4.7 (mostly eMacs and some iMacs). Our
users home-folders and files are all on the servers, and we manage many
of their login and user-preferences via WGM.

We are up to date on Office as well, using v. 11.2.3.

This error happened occasionally last year, when we were running 10.4.2
& 10.4.3 on the servers and clients, but now it is happening almost all
the time. I can only assume is related to permissions - some change
that happened in the update to 10.4.7 - that Office doesn't like with
the temp directories it uses that live on the server? Maybe there is
something I can change, permissions-wise, on the client-machines? I'd
rather not have to do that to 400 Macs, but if it stops this error, I
would do it. Because of the nature of our network, I'd greatly prefer
not to have to change any permissions at the root-level of the server
directories - user-level would be best.

Please please please, if anyone else is running into this problem, let
me know - I have posted multiple times to the Apple d-boards, but
gotten ZERO response. I know the way our network and user-structure
can't be totally unique, so someone else must know what I'm talking
about here.

Thank you for your time

Blair C.
Technology Specialist/IT
The Churchill School - New York, New York

 

[mr.blair]

On further investigation I have been able to find out some more things.

As a test, I copied the "Templates" folder from the MS Office 2004
folder in Applications to the "Microsoft User Data" folder in a user's
Documents folder (User>Documents>Microsoft User Data>Templates).

Then I tried opening some old files, but still got the same errors.

However, when I created a new file and saved it, quit out of Word, then
re-opened the file, it ran just fine - opened without an error, was
able to modify it, then save it, all without errors.

BUT, there's still something wrong, because whenever a user logs out of
the computer and logs back on, there is a "Recovered Files" folder in
their trash that contains "Word Work file x_x" - these files show the
correct permissions (they belong to the user and are modifiable), BUT
when the user tries to empty the trash, they get this error:

"The operation cannot be completed because the item "Word Work File
D_x" is in use."

Clearly, the file is not in use by Word when the program isn't running,
but the system still thinks it is in use. If I, the sys-admin, manually
delete the files from the user's trash via the terminal, whatever file
those work-files were connected to then gives the "being used by
'another user'" error again whenever it is opened/modified/closed.

The only workaround seems to be to save copies of the files, and this
is really frustrating my users.

Can anyone help?

thanks

Blair C
Technology Specialist/IT
The Churchill School - New York, New York

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Blair,

Someone else may have a permanent solution but as a temporary workaround,
see what happens if you log out and back in again and/or reboot the
computers. I saw the same 'other user' messages myself recently after
leaving my computer on for well over a week while I was out of town.
Rebooting fixed it. But I'm a single user so this may not work for you at
all, or may work on a temporary basis only.

By the way, I also used the OS's Disk Utility to Repair Disk Permissions but
that didn't help. However, it's worth a try in your case.

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

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
My Site: <http://www.bethrosengard.com>

 

[mr.blair]

Thanks Beth, but unfortunately this doesn't help us too much.

This does happen regardless of logging out and back in, rebooting, etc,
mostly because of the multi-user environment we're in.

Blair

 

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

This happens when the Server network transport protocol is not talking to
the workstation properly. It fails to release the lock on network files
when the original user closes the file. I just wish I could remember the
details...

I thought there was an Apple patch that fixed it. Given that you are a
professional network administrator, have a look in the Apple knowledgebase.

If you don't find anything, come back here, and we'll try to dig a bit
deeper...

Cheers

Thanks Beth, but unfortunately this doesn't help us too much.

This does happen regardless of logging out and back in, rebooting, etc,
mostly because of the multi-user environment we're in.

Blair

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[mr.blair]

Thanks for the suggestion John - I have spent enough time searching on
the Apple d-boards and knowledge base to know that there isn't much
there to help me.

While Apple says that the OSX 10.4.6 server update "Addresses an issue
that prevented the Autosave function of Microsoft Word from working for
users of AFP home directories" (from this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303160) - unfortunately
OSX 10.4.7 and Office 11.2.3-11.2.6 still don't seem to work across our
network.

thanks

Blair

 

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

Damn. That's the one I was thinking of. Please hold the phone, I am asking
a Mac Sys Admin expert for you...

Thanks for the suggestion John - I have spent enough time searching on
the Apple d-boards and knowledge base to know that there isn't much
there to help me.

While Apple says that the OSX 10.4.6 server update "Addresses an issue
that prevented the Autosave function of Microsoft Word from working for
users of AFP home directories" (from this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303160) - unfortunately
OSX 10.4.7 and Office 11.2.3-11.2.6 still don't seem to work across our
network.

thanks

Blair

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

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

Ok: This is what I have back from one of our experienced Mac Admins:

1) use lsof to really see what is holding the file open

2) make sure all temp directory permissions are set correctly

The first is most important: we need to know "what" it is that's holding the
file. It can be something as simple as an anti-virus process or a streaming
backup process.

Hope this helps

Damn. That's the one I was thinking of. Please hold the phone, I am asking
a Mac Sys Admin expert for you...

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[noahdelarosa]

I also ran into this problem a few times myself. This only occurs
during an upgrade from 10.2 and 10.3 to 10.4 (10.4.6 during the time of
this post). Out of about 50 or so upgrades I get one user with this
problem. the systems I work with varies from the Original G4's,
QuickSilver and Mirrored to the new G5 systems as well as the
PowerBooks and now the MacBook Pro systems. Below is the things I have
one so far:

First thing I tried to do was to keep the profile intact so I would
remove the Office App and re-install it, test any of the users word
docs which seems to work fine only to have the problem occur after I
reboot the system. Next, I would remove all instances of Microsoft
Office including the users Office 12004 App, Microsoft User Data
(usually located in the Documents Folder) and any Microsoft preferences
in the users Preferences Folder as well. Re-install Office 2004 (11.2.5
at the time of this post). Again I would test any of the users word
docs which seems to work fine only to have the problem occur once I
reboot the system. Other things I would do was to remove the Library
all together and have it recreated upon reboot, open a word doc to
still see that problem occur once I reboot the machine.

Out of three users who had this problem, One resolved by having me
delete the users profile entirely then re-creating it without importing
anything from the persons old profile. I would then slowly move only
the users Documents Foolder (minus the Microsoft Use Data), Desktop and
bookmarks from the users Prefernces. The only problem with this is, if
the user had any other preferences that works with some Apps, they
might not work and needed to be re-installed. This did resolve the
issue though.

The other two weren't so lucky. Even going through the above paragraph,
the problem still occured after the reboot of the machine. The only
workaround for them was 1) Go into Get Info on the users folder ->
going into Ownerships and Permissions and changing the Group from
"username" to admin or vice-versa. The problem does not occur until the
system is re-booted. So the next part is to 2) do not shutdown the
machine. If the system had re-booted you need to go back to the persons
profile -> Get Info -> change the group once again from either
"username" to admin or admin to "username"

Thanks so much for your time and hopefully we find true resolution to
this issue from Microsoft

Noah Dela Rosa
Senior Technologist, Mac & PC Administrator
Livermore, California

Ok: This is what I have back from one of our experienced Mac Admins:

1) use lsof to really see what is holding the file open

2) make sure all temp directory permissions are set correctly

The first is most important: we need to know "what" it is that's holding the
file. It can be something as simple as an anti-virus process or a streaming
backup process.

Hope this helps

Damn. That's the one I was thinking of. Please hold the phone, I am asking
a Mac Sys Admin expert for you...

Thanks for the suggestion John - I have spent enough time searching on
the Apple d-boards and knowledge base to know that there isn't much
there to help me.

While Apple says that the OSX 10.4.6 server update "Addresses an issue
that prevented the Autosave function of Microsoft Word from working for
users of AFP home directories" (from this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303160) - unfortunately
OSX 10.4.7 and Office 11.2.3-11.2.6 still don't seem to work across our
network.

thanks

Blair

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh] wrote:
This happens when the Server network transport protocol is not talking to
the workstation properly. It fails to release the lock on network files
when the original user closes the file. I just wish I could remember the
details...

I thought there was an Apple patch that fixed it. Given that you are a
professional network administrator, have a look in the Apple knowledgebase.

If you don't find anything, come back here, and we'll try to dig a bit
deeper...

Cheers

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

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

Hi Noah:

Something that just occurred to me: Since these are network installations,
I assume we have checked that they have unique UID's??

See here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/CantSaveToServer.html

Cheers

I also ran into this problem a few times myself. This only occurs
during an upgrade from 10.2 and 10.3 to 10.4 (10.4.6 during the time of
this post). Out of about 50 or so upgrades I get one user with this
problem. the systems I work with varies from the Original G4's,
QuickSilver and Mirrored to the new G5 systems as well as the
PowerBooks and now the MacBook Pro systems. Below is the things I have
one so far:

First thing I tried to do was to keep the profile intact so I would
remove the Office App and re-install it, test any of the users word
docs which seems to work fine only to have the problem occur after I
reboot the system. Next, I would remove all instances of Microsoft
Office including the users Office 12004 App, Microsoft User Data
(usually located in the Documents Folder) and any Microsoft preferences
in the users Preferences Folder as well. Re-install Office 2004 (11.2.5
at the time of this post). Again I would test any of the users word
docs which seems to work fine only to have the problem occur once I
reboot the system. Other things I would do was to remove the Library
all together and have it recreated upon reboot, open a word doc to
still see that problem occur once I reboot the machine.

Out of three users who had this problem, One resolved by having me
delete the users profile entirely then re-creating it without importing
anything from the persons old profile. I would then slowly move only
the users Documents Foolder (minus the Microsoft Use Data), Desktop and
bookmarks from the users Prefernces. The only problem with this is, if
the user had any other preferences that works with some Apps, they
might not work and needed to be re-installed. This did resolve the
issue though.

The other two weren't so lucky. Even going through the above paragraph,
the problem still occured after the reboot of the machine. The only
workaround for them was 1) Go into Get Info on the users folder ->
going into Ownerships and Permissions and changing the Group from
"username" to admin or vice-versa. The problem does not occur until the
system is re-booted. So the next part is to 2) do not shutdown the
machine. If the system had re-booted you need to go back to the persons
profile -> Get Info -> change the group once again from either
"username" to admin or admin to "username"

Thanks so much for your time and hopefully we find true resolution to
this issue from Microsoft

Noah Dela Rosa
Senior Technologist, Mac & PC Administrator
Livermore, California

Ok: This is what I have back from one of our experienced Mac Admins:

1) use lsof to really see what is holding the file open

2) make sure all temp directory permissions are set correctly

The first is most important: we need to know "what" it is that's holding the
file. It can be something as simple as an anti-virus process or a streaming
backup process.

Hope this helps

Damn. That's the one I was thinking of. Please hold the phone, I am asking
a Mac Sys Admin expert for you...

On 27/9/06 11:35 PM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "(e-mail address removed)"

Thanks for the suggestion John - I have spent enough time searching on
the Apple d-boards and knowledge base to know that there isn't much
there to help me.

While Apple says that the OSX 10.4.6 server update "Addresses an issue
that prevented the Autosave function of Microsoft Word from working for
users of AFP home directories" (from this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303160) - unfortunately
OSX 10.4.7 and Office 11.2.3-11.2.6 still don't seem to work across our
network.

thanks

Blair

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh] wrote:
This happens when the Server network transport protocol is not talking to
the workstation properly. It fails to release the lock on network files
when the original user closes the file. I just wish I could remember the
details...

I thought there was an Apple patch that fixed it. Given that you are a
professional network administrator, have a look in the Apple
knowledgebase.

If you don't find anything, come back here, and we'll try to dig a bit
deeper...

Cheers

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410