This issue is limited to one user.
I have already run several repairs on Excel and even set up a new computer.
Still the problem happens.
Every couple of months, an Excel file which she is working on will get reverted to a version of one or two modifications ago.
Checking event viewer logs and file server logs show nobody else modifying the file other than the user.
The issue is very simliar to this:
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1033561
which was never resolved.
I'm inclined to think this is a user-caused issue. It is happening to no one else.
So I guess my question is both technical and non-technical.
On the technical side, is there anything else I can check which could be causing this? Maybe Excel is caching older version which, for some reason, then overwrite the new version?
On the non-technical side, what best practices can I show the user so, if the problem is being caused by something they're doing, it will stop occurring?
ASKER
The user doesn't email files. They all know to update on the shared drive and then tell others where the file is located so they can work on them there.
@Davis
This could be be it, if an autosaved older version was getting saved somehow. However, I specifically turned on autosave because of this problem, so it was occurring even before then.
VSS is already on, but in many cases the user loses work being done in the middle of the day, before the next shadow copy is created.
@Brian
This issue happens randomly as far as I can tell. It is often once every couple of month, so it's not possible for me to watch the user that whole time.
Outside of installing a keylogger, I don't know how to 100% monitor the user's Excel activity.
I can ask to make sure they check the date of the file before opening, just to take note it hasn't happened before they start working on it.
I spoke with the user and they have a rather complicated process when working on files. For example:
Two files
File1
File2
Some work is done on both and they are renamed to:
File1v1
File2v2
A copy of those files is moved to another folder.
Then, more work is done on the files and they are re-named back to their original names:
File1
File2
Maybe at some point during that process, the user makes an error and reverts the file back to an old version.