File "is being used by "another user" error message

[Lucien]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

We are running Mac OS X Server in our office and all staff have their home folders stored in the server. Recently switched to Office 2008, staff reported me a problem while working with the new file extension .docx : They get an error message whenever they try to open a docx file that has been already opened just before : myfile.docx is being used by "another user". Do you want to make a copy? I've installed the latest update (12.0.1) but it doesn't solve the problem.
I'm waiting for your help !
Thanks,
Lucien

 

[John McGhie]

We can't help with that one (other than to tell you to wait...)

It's one symptom of a known bug, for which there is a fix in the Office
Service Release 12.1.0 which is due out soon.

Don't get confused: 12.0.1 is the hotfix, 12.1.0 is the one we are all
waiting for.

The service release may not FULLY address the problem. There's a patch
needed at the Apple end as well. Which we're waiting on.

Sorry

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

We are running Mac OS X Server in our office and all staff have their home
folders stored in the server. Recently switched to Office 2008, staff reported
me a problem while working with the new file extension .docx : They get an
error message whenever they try to open a docx file that has been already
opened just before : myfile.docx is being used by "another user". Do you want
to make a copy? I've installed the latest update (12.0.1) but it doesn't solve
the problem.
I'm waiting for your help !
Thanks,
Lucien

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Lucien]

Thank you John,
I will be waiting for the updates/patches...

 

[CyberTaz]

Service Pack 1 was released Tuesday;

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

The patches are available for download now.

You can download them from the Mactopia home page. They are being held back
from the AutoUpdate while they investigate a reported issue with automatic
installation.

Cheers

Thank you John,
I will be waiting for the updates/patches...

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Lucien]

Unfortunately the 180MB 12.1.0 update didn't fix the problem while working with network home folders. Disappointed.

 

[John McGhie]

OK, then it's probably an issue for your System Administrator.

See if this helps:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/CantSaveToServer.html

There are several things that will cause this: one is the bug that was fixed
in SR 12.1.0. Another is that all users on the network have the same Unix
ID. Yet others will happen of the server is mis-configured (for example,
having the same share mounted twice in the Finder, or having the same share
mounted with both SMB and AFP will do it every time...)

Hope this helps

Unfortunately the 180MB 12.1.0 update didn't fix the problem while working
with network home folders. Disappointed.

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Lucien]

I'm the system admin actually.
I've been to the link already before you typed it in your answer but this link doesn't have anything to do with my problem because it refers to normal users trying to access data from a server.
The user accounts i've created for staff are real network users. When being created from Mac OS X Server with WorkGroup Manager utility, each users get an unique UID.

 

[John McGhie]

Sorry about that.... Nothing is as frustrating as "See your System
Administrator" when you ARE the System Administrator

Well, the patch is supposed to fix that one, so we need you to hang a
utility such as Little Snitch across the cable and tell us WHY the files are
not being unlocked correctly on the server.

If you can get some good diagnostic data, I can bump this up to the
Microsoft folks for you.

Sorry to be not much help...

I'm the system admin actually.
I've been to the link already before you typed it in your answer but this link
doesn't have anything to do with my problem because it refers to normal users
trying to access data from a server.
The user accounts i've created for staff are real network users. When being
created from Mac OS X Server with WorkGroup Manager utility, each users get an
unique UID.

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Peter Connolly]

Thought I'd chip in here to say I also have a similarly configured network with an Xserve hosting home and shared folders.

My users have been experiencing lockouts with older .doc and .xls files with a success ratio of 1:3 read-write vs read-only when opening. We embarked on a campaign of updating all frequently used files to .docx and .xlsx which was solving the problem until I installed SR12.1.0.

Now the lock-out problem is occurring with .docx files in the manner described above - when the files have been recently closed and reopened by the same or different user.

Here's hoping there is a solution soon as the problem is confined to Office files while Adobe files and our CAD files remain free of this issue.

Regards,
PC