Rogue copy files

[roccov]

Can anyone help with this strange phenomenon? I have a folder with
several Word documents (Microsoft Word 2002 SP2). Suddenly several new
documents which appear to be copies of some of the original ones have
appeared in the folder whilst the originals remain unchanged. There are
two new types of these copy files, for example one document I had named
04131[20040723] has appeared as ~WRL3945.tmp and is listed as file type
"TMP File". The file icon is greyed out but does open when
double-clicked and seems identical to the original.

An example of the other type is a copy of a file I named
03133[20031030] and has the file name ~$133[20031030] and is listed as
"Microsoft Word Document", like the original. The file icon is greyed
out but does open. However where the original is a four page letter,
the new file is a three page document with a couple of lines of squares
at the top of each page. All these files start ~$ and are 1 KB in size.

Can anyone explain what is going on and can I safely delete these rogue
copies?

 

[garfield-n-odie]

See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632 "Description of how
Word creates temporary files". Ordinarily, Word will
automatically delete the temporary files when the related Word
document is closed normally. But if Word crashes, or if the
computer is not shut down properly while Word is running, or if
network permissions are not set correctly, then the temporary
files sometimes don't get deleted automatically. It's probably
safe to manually delete temporary files that are more than a few
days old.

 

[roccov]

Thanks. Do you know about the other files which were created at the
same time ie the ones that start ~$ and are ordinary Word Documents
(not .tmp) but with gibberish on the pages?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Did you read the article? ~$lename.doc files are the "owner" files.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

They are "owner" files that Word creates when you open Word
files. Their purpose is also explained in the article I cited.

 

[Beth Melton]

As Suzanne and Garfield have pointed out, these are called Owner files
and the KB article mentions them.

But if you want the layman's definition/description:

When a document is opened an Owner file is created and holds the user
info of the individual that currently has the document open - that's
the 'gibberish' you see on the page. It's a hidden file, which is
why the icon is more transparent than other files, so if you aren't
viewing Hidden files you don't normally see them. If you recently
changed your View settings then that's why you are seeing them now.

It's a normal process and the owner file is used in a shared
environment. For example if the document is in a shared folder and if
a second user tries to open the file they'll get a message along the
lines of, "File is in use by <UserName>. Do you want to make a copy?".

Once the document is closed then the Owner file is deleted when the
document is closed. However if an error should occur then Word is
unable to delete the Owner file. So the next time the document is
opened, Word "sees" that an Owner file exists and presents the
message, "file is in use by...".

So if you find them they are safe to delete.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/