Excel is not notifying on open files

Question

_{Tuesday, January 22, 2019 4:07 PM}

Hi

We have Windows 10 Bld 1803 and Office 2016 with current patches on all systems. Our file servers are Windows 2016 and Windows 2012 R2.

Problem: User A opens a .xlsm file and is working on it. User B opens the same file and doesn't receive a notification that the file is already open and in use.

This problem has only started after the implementation of Windows 10 and Office 2016. We didn't have this issue with Windows 7 and Office 2013.

The problem is unfortunately intermittent, I haven't been able to reproduce it.

I have tested remove the specific folders from Virus Protection - On Access scanning. However this hasn't stopped the occurances.

Because of the intermittence of the problem, using Sysinternal tools isn't really feasible. If anyone has any trouble-shooting recommendations, I love a direction to go in.

Thanks

Cherie

All replies (2)

_{Wednesday, January 23, 2019 10:06 AM}

Hi Nyobi,

As far as I know, if you enable the shared workbook feature for a workbook in Excel, the shared workbooks can be opened and edited by multiple users without the notification that the file is already open and in use. You can see a ‘Shared’ in the title of the workbook.

Did you change the opportunistic locking settings on the server? See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296264. Generally, when a user open and edit a workbook in a shared network location, Excel will create a temporary file ($~filename.xlsm) to lock it up. You can try to check if Excel can create temporary files normally when opening these xlsm files. I suggest you can also confirm in File Services and Storage forum to check if there is any setting in Network sharing side to control the temp file clearing: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/home?forum=winserverfiles

Based on your description, I found a related thread that may be useful to your problem: Multiple users are able to edit same Excel file on server. You can refer to it to see if it helps.

Hope you could resolve the issue smoothly. Anything unclear or any update, feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Herb

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_{Tuesday, March 5, 2019 2:16 PM}

Hi Herb

Thanks for the reply. These files aren't Shared Workbooks and aren't meant to be. We don't want multiple people in them at the same time.

Normally Excel checks for an ownership file and if it finds one it notifies you that the file is already open by someone else. This isn't happening for us. The ownership files are either:

1. not being created

or

2 or being removed sometime while the user is editing the file. Even though the user hasn't finished editing the file.

So it doesn't notify the next user....that the file is already open and being edited.

There are limitations with Shared Workbooks that prevent this option being viable for us.

Thanks

Nyobi