someone else is working in [file path] right now. Please try again later

Question

_{Wednesday, December 20, 2017 7:12 PM}

I have one user that constantly docs and undocks her machine.  at random times she will save her file and get the following error:

someone else is working in [file path] right now. Please try again later

this seems to happen to only one user.  

Some things to note:

--when docked the user uses a LAN which is on one IP

--when the user undocks they use wirelss which is another IP

The user also cant overwrite the file, they have to do save as.  Does anyone have any suggestions or fixes?

All replies (5)

_{Thursday, December 21, 2017 3:19 AM}

Hi，

Does the issue affect all Office applications on the user's machine?
Where are the files stored, on the network share or her local disk?

Generally, the error might occur when the owner file for the document which is created in the same folder as the document you are opening is not deleted. Its name consists of a tilde (~) followed by a dollar sign ($) and then the rest of the file name of the document you are opening. Please check for and delete the temp owner file to see if the error can be stopped.

Additionally, in some cases, the issue could be worked around by adding the registry below:

Important Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

Please refer to this article about how to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

Note: You may need to change 16.0 to 15.0 or 14.0 according to your Office version. 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Options]
"DisableRobustifiedUNC"=dword:00000001
 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options]
"DisableRobustifiedUNC"=dword:00000001
 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\PowerPoint\Options]
"DisableRobustifiedUNC"=dword:00000001

Hope the above information can be helpful.

Best regards,
Yuki Sun

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_{Thursday, December 21, 2017 3:25 AM | 1 vote}

yes it affects all office applications we believe, so far its affected: word, visio, project and excel

these are all files located on the network share

what do the registry settings you provided do?

_{Thursday, December 21, 2017 5:09 AM}

Hi,

The registry key "DisableRobustifiedUNC" is used to disable Robustified UNC. For explanation about "Robustified UNC", hopefully you can find the post of Robinson Zhange under this thread helpful.

Best regards,
Yuki Sun

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Friday, December 22, 2017 4:27 PM}

we believe the root issue was a slow wifi issue.  we applied a firmware upgrade to the access point and have not seen any issues.  we will continue to monitor.

thanks for all of your help

_{Monday, December 25, 2017 2:00 AM}

we believe the root issue was a slow wifi issue.  we applied a firmware upgrade to the access point and have not seen any issues.  we will continue to monitor.

thanks for all of your help

Hi,

Great to see that the issue has been stopped and thanks so much for sharing!

By the way, could you please help mark your post above as answer if the issue doesn't come back? It will be greatly helpful to others who have the same question. Thanks for your understanding and support.

Best regards,
Yuki Sun

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].