Excel Files Show 'Locked For Editing' when hosted on SharePoint, accessed via a mapped network drive, and a crash happens. (Temp files?)

These files weren't intended to be openned via mapped drive (Security Reasons). The proper mapping method is via HTTP opened from explorer, Therefore sharepoint would have control of who openned what and when.

Vico1!

Sharepoint permissions still apply when using it via mapped drive letter, security isnt affected or different via this way of access.

I think that you can do nothing about it; if excel freezes or the computer crashes, the user has to reopen the file and check it in... the 'checked out' state is maintained until the user saves back the file (if the user opened it for editing w/o checking it out first), or until is checked in ...

in this case, the user is not using check in/check out, but rather opening the files via mapped drive letter. based on your comment though I will have the user try to use the http interface to check out/check in and see if that fixes it.  if so i will award points. (hopefully its a while before their Excel crashes again, so if anyone has 'the concrete solution' please voice it!)

dang, just noticed I put "Exchange" instead of "Excel" in the tile... Sorry about that.  In the description I used the correct wording.  Once I figure out how to change that I will.

*** Title Edited *** TechSoEasy -- EE's Microsoft Zone Advisor

I told you Sharepoint Database keeps tracks of Who open what and when, that's why a mapped drive the way you do it will not work.

then why am I able to open it, via mapped drive, on another PC and it dosent yield this error?  If what you are saying was correct then I should get the 'locked for editing' on the other computer, but dont.

I've seen this propblem answered (on Google) without SharePoint in the equation, and the solution was local temp files.  I tried deleting local temp files in C:\Doc and Setting\user... and also C:windows\temp but in this case it did not clear up the error.  Not 100% of the temp files were deleted, so I will focus on that as a possiblity.

A mapped drive to a SharePoint library is really just an HTTP shortcut... so Vico1, you aren't really right about what you're saying.  It's no different than you just entering http://companyweb/General%20Documents/file.xls (for example).

However the Check-out, Check-in info is correct.  You can see this explained in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899709.  And although that KB article states that it's a 10-minute time-out.  If Office crashes while editing the document, I don't think the time-out applies... you will need to go back and manually Check-in the document.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

I have advised the user to try this, but if this were indeed the cause of the problem - why would I be able to open the files on other PCs without the error?

user reported this was not the solution

you can't do nothing from the client side ... the checked-out state is maintained on the server ... in the sharepoint content database ...

anyway there are 2 types of locks. details here: http://glorix.blogspot.com/2006/09/sharepoint-2003-unlocking-longterm.html

for the short term check out, MS recommend to wait about 10 minutes: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899709
also, have a look on this kb, too: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884050

well, i will see if i can contact some of the posters on some of those links.  from what i can tell, though, this continues to not be the solution, for the following reasons:
-files never unlocked even after an hour of waiting
-files can instantly be opened without error on another PC

so, i feel like its a temp file on the local PC issue, but that the temp files for this access are not stored in the "usual place" that they would be if you had this error w/o SharePoint.

again, "they say" if this happens using "regular Excel" then you delete C:\Doc and Setting\user\local\temp and also C:\Windows\temp.  I tried that after a reboot, before opening Excel, and not 100% of the files were deleted, but most were.  Error still persisted.  I will try stuff like booting in to safe mode and attmepting to delete those temp files, etc..

ill report what i find, and if any of the above links leads me to another source who can answer i will award points to original poster of link for me. again though - if anyone's got the concrete answer please state it.

also, thank you all so much for the posts thus far!! :)

A quick question.
If you copy the file locally and open it do you still get the same error?
Vico1!

I will ask the user to test this, and report the results.  Alternativly, if I have time I will try and force a crash and test myself.

You can't let a standard user check this out for you.  You must be a SharePoint Administrator to check-in a document that shows a status of checked out.  Please go to the SharePoint document library that contains the Excel spreadsheet and see what the status is yourself.

If it shows Checked Out, then you, as an Administrator, can force a Check-in status.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Thanks for your assistance, TechSoEasy.  

I should have elaborated when I said 'user reported this was not the solution'.  When this error happens, the status does not show checked-out on SharePoint.

vico1 - I asked the user to copy the files locally and try to open, if network/sharepoint ones had error.  They said yes, they were able to open them when copied locally.  (Note: This was good to test, but will not be able to be a work-around due to the links in the files.)

More notes to help troubleshoot:
- User has experienced file lock problem once after reboot, but no crash.  (Temp files not deleting?)

You can close this question if you'd like.  Its dissapointing that it never got resolved, but we are switching to SP2007 and Office 2007, so hopefully that "solves" the problem.

Well... I do remember this issue... and just read back over the thread... and then I tested it on my own test network (using SBS 2003 and Windows XP Pro with Office 2003 Pro installed).

I mapped \\companyweb\General Documents as X: and then opened an Excel Spreadsheet that was in a subfolder of General Documents.  It opened fine, along with the SharePoint Task Panel.  Then, when I went to save it, the Save As box was, as expected, an HTML version instead of the familiar NTFS file list.  The document saved just fine.

So... i wonder if on the workstation, you did not have the WebClient service running?  Also, are the Office 2003 Web Components installed (the option can be selected during Office 2003 isntallation, or by rerunning Office 2003 Setup).   Because these are cruicial to this in order to make it work... because essentially the document is really in http://companyweb/General%20Documents/ and if those services/components aren't installed and running, then the address won't be translated properly... mostly, it won't get the %20 in the spaces as needed to find the proper location.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

TechSoEasy,

Yes, the problem is it runs fine for a while, up until a crash, and then there is no way to "unlock the files".  When this happens on a normal Excel document, you can clear the temp files.  In this instance, clearing the temp files dosent work.

We have stopped using SP 2003 all together, and are now on 2007.  So far I have not heard a report of this problem on 2007.

well, if you met the user who had the problem you would see it was not 'all for not' :-)

yes, on 2007 I see they have gone much farther with the Windows Explorer integration.

cheers!

We are seeing a similar problem in SP 2007 (MOSS) - user cannot open for edit, error: locked; However, I (sp admin) can open, edit; I can check-out and check-in; but user still cannot open for edit due to file being locked. Seems like a temporary lock file on user's PC, but cannot find it; deleting temp files does not work.

Peter

I'm having the same problem as Peter.  We're only using WSS 3.0, but user 1 modifed an excel file on Friday (and closed it), and now it's Monday and user 2 can't open it - says it's locked.  I (admin) can open it for editing fine.  Tried clearing out the content.mso folder on user 1's pc, rebooted both user's computers, waited the obligatory 10 minutes, I checked out and checked in the file - still telling user 2 it's locked by user 1.  Maybe there's a setting in a table somewhere that can be changed?

Just load the file in read only from sharepoint and save the file as XLSX (or with a new mame), then remove the firts file from sharepoint.  this fix the problem for me