Excel 2007 and "owner files"

[Marc]

Hi all,

I understand Excel 2007 now creates "owner files" (starting with ~$) for
xslx files and not for xls files. My problem is that it seems impossible to
copy these "owner files" anywhere even using an administrator account. This
actually causes all folder copies to fail as soon as it contains an open xlsx
file in it as well.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated as to why I can't seem to be able
to copy these files, thanks !

 

[Gordon]

Hi all,

I understand Excel 2007 now creates "owner files" (starting with ~$) for
xslx files and not for xls files. My problem is that it seems impossible
to
copy these "owner files" anywhere even using an administrator account.
This
actually causes all folder copies to fail as soon as it contains an open
xlsx
file in it as well.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated as to why I can't seem to be able
to copy these files, thanks !

No not right. This has always happened with Office, which is why you should
never edit a file on removable media.
These files are not "owner" files, they are temp files used for editing.

 

[Marc]

Hi Gordon,

I'm afraid this contradicts what Bob Buckland (MS Office System Products
MVP) says here :
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=31676848&threadid=31660924

and this other Microsoft article :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211632/en-us

Marc

 

[Gordon]

Hi Gordon,

I'm afraid this contradicts what Bob Buckland (MS Office System Products
MVP) says here :
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=31676848&threadid=31660924

and this other Microsoft article :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211632/en-us

Unfortunately I don't currently have Internet access at the moment, so I
can't check the links, but AFAIK Office has always done this and AFAIK they
are only "owner" files in the sense that the user who opens a document is
the owner of them!
If you open a document in (say) Word, a temp file is created in the same
folder while you are editing and have the document open, but as soon as you
close the document, the temp file disappears. Usually. Some don't
occasionally for reasons I can never fathom.

 

[Marc]

Yes, most office applications do create temporary files but usually in your
local temp folder and these are deleted when the file is closed and saved.
These usualy start with a ~ and have .tmp extension.

However there is a different kind of temp files which have the same
extensions as the original files and this is the one I'm speaking of in my
question. It is described as such in the 2nd article :

Owner File (Same Directory as Source File)
When a previously saved file is opened for editing, for printing, or for
review, Word creates a temporary file that has a .doc file name extension.
This file name extension begins with a tilde (~) that is followed by a dollar
sign ($) that is followed by the remainder of the original file name. This
temporary file holds the logon name of person who opens the file. This
temporary file is called the "owner file."

For some reason I can't seem to copy these files (which are on network
shares) when using Windows XP. What's even stranger is that I seem to be able
to copy them from my Windows 7 RC computer or from the server itself (windows
2008) without any problem. Only Windows XP SP2 clients come up with the error
message : "Error copying file or folder. Cannot copy ~$test. It is being used
by another person or program. Close any ..."

Very strange indeed !

 

[Gordon]

For some reason I can't seem to copy these files (which are on network
shares) when using Windows XP. What's even stranger is that I seem to be
able
to copy them from my Windows 7 RC computer or from the server itself
(windows
2008) without any problem. Only Windows XP SP2 clients come up with the
error
message : "Error copying file or folder. Cannot copy ~$test. It is being
used
by another person or program. Close any ..."

Why would you want to? They are TEMP files. They DISAPPEAR when the file
being edited is closed.

 

[Marc]

Well, I don't really want to myself to but my users are used to copying
shared folders onto their laptops to work while on the go and now they can't
if someone else has got an excel file still open in that folder ...

 

[Gordon]

Well, I don't really want to myself to but my users are used to copying
shared folders onto their laptops to work while on the go and now they
can't
if someone else has got an excel file still open in that folder ...

That's how it's always worked. They can open the open file as Read-Only and
then Save-As to a different file name.
And I don't know whether you've noticed - the temp file is only 1 kb big, so
it contains NO data at all.

 

[Marc]

It's true that's how it always worked with Word 2003 but that's not how it
worked with Excel 2003. No "owner file" was ever created with Excel 2003 and
Excel 2007 still doesn't create "owner files" when working with "old" Excel
2003 files (ending in .xls).

I guess this is simply a new "feature" of Excel 2007 which we'll have to get
used to (as we've just upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007).

What I still don't get is why these files can't be copied using a Windows XP
OS but can using a Windows 7 or Windows 2008 OS though ?

 

[Gordon]

It's true that's how it always worked with Word 2003 but that's not how it
worked with Excel 2003. No "owner file" was ever created with Excel 2003
and
Excel 2007 still doesn't create "owner files" when working with "old"
Excel
2003 files (ending in .xls).

I guess this is simply a new "feature" of Excel 2007 which we'll have to
get
used to (as we've just upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007).

What I still don't get is why these files can't be copied using a Windows
XP
OS but can using a Windows 7 or Windows 2008 OS though ?

They are only 1kb!!! WHY are you trying to copy them? You can't DO anything
with them!

 

[Marc]

Well, as I said before, I don't really want to myself to but my users are
used to copying shared folders onto their laptops to work while on the go and
now they can't if someone else has got an excel file still open in that
folder ...

We have many users and they occasionally copy many shared folders unto their
laptop drive. This used to work fine without them having to go into every
subfolder to check whether a file was left open or not. Now every time they
try to copy a folder containing a excel file still open by another user the
copy fails because of all these 1K "owner files" containing no data except
the name of the user who's got the file open.

When you leave a Word 2003 file open in a subfolder you can copy the folder
without any issue. The "owner file" gets copied along. It is not the case
with these new Excel 2003 "owner files" and this is our problem.

If it was possible NOT to copy these owner files (which users don't even see
as they don't see system/hidden files) but only the real Excel files I'd be
happy but I don't think this is an option when dragging and dropping folders
or using right click copy, right click paste ?