[Solved] Locked for editing by unknown user

[Hagar Delest]

Hi,

I have a client who recently upgraded to Windows 10 and he is using OpenOffice 4.1. Since upgrading all open office file are locked for editing by unknown user. I have turned on hidden files and folders but there are no lock files in the folder. I have tried taking ownership of the files and then opening but it still has this error. Is there any other workaround for this?

Thanks

Malcolm

[Bill]

AFAIK, the "locked by unknown user" message is only displayed if there is a lock file present in the same folder as the user's file. Lock files not removed before upgrading to Windows 10 will cause this message if the user or computer name changes (the lock file contains both names), however it would be highly unusual if every file had a lock file unless the user is in the habit of not closing files properly.

Taking ownership is necessary if file permissions need to be changed. Taking ownership doesn't affect actual permissions or locking of files, but incorrect permissions would result in an "access denied" message, not a locked file message.

[RoryOF]

Sometimes I have seen a lock file in the root of the OO user profile (alongside the "user" directory); I have no definite analysis of why this is present; it doesn't always occur. At a guess, and it is just a guess, it may be something to do with network access of an OO file (my major working files are stored on a NAS server).

[Bill]

The lock file alongside the user directory is always present when OpenOffice is running. It doesn't affect opening of user files.

[Bill]

I shutdown OpenOffice and pasted a lock file with a different user name alongside the user directory to see what would happen when trying to open a file. This resulted in the message "Either another instance of OpenOffice is accessing your personal settings or your personal settings are locked" instead of the message "Locked by unknown user".

[gerard24]

See https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/v ... 15&t=78432

[status001]

Hi,

Thanks for everyone that posted, I knew it wasn't a lock file, I had already searched the whole computer, plus it was every open office file that he tried to open. Anyway I finally found the issue, it was Bitdefender Ransomware Protection. Even if all the OpenOffice applications are in trusted applications, the problem still happens. With this switched off, all open document files open fine.

[Bill]

Have you reported this to Bitdefender?

[status001]

Hi Bill,

Yes I sent an e-mail to Bitdefender. They sent me back an how to guide for setting up Ransomware but it was just a product overview, nothing to help with the error. So I have left it turned off.

[mikeguz]

My issue was with the "Impress" Presentation program. By default, it brings up this "Wizard" which allows you to either create a blank presentation, open a template, or select files you have edited before.

When I selected one of the files I had edited before, a "Preview" shows up. Then when attempt to Open that file, the Open fails with the lock message.

I made two changes in the Wizard, (1) for the Wizard to never show me Previews and (2) for Impress itself to never show the Wizard at all and just always open up a blank presentation upon launch. I then exited the program, killed all of the Open Office processes in the process table, deleted the .~lock* files as described in responses above, then ran Impress again.

Now, the Wizard never comes up, and the lock problem has not resurfaced since.

I did also notice that Preview in the Wizard is in itself generating these lock files as you switch from one file to the next, and the lock files don't seem to go away while the Wizard is running. So as best as I can tell, what is happening is a classic race condition, where the actual File Open is attempted before the Wizard Preview has had a chance to close and unlock the file it was previewing.

[Flynn MacNiall]

I have just spent 10 minutes trying to get a doc i work on from being "locked by an unknown user" when i open it again.
Surely there is a simple way to just disable the lock function.
No one else works on my documents but me yet i often get the message "open read only" or "Copy" what is the deal with that.
I have never checked use the lock function.

So, anyone know what i am talking about and how to get around this duplication of effort?

Thanks Finn

[Bill]

If you read this whole thread, you will find that the "locked by an unknown user" message was caused by another program. The AOO lock function should give an actual user name, not "unknown user". If the AOO lock function is finding a lock file and producing the message, it only takes about 10 seconds to delete the lock file.

[AkiraLe]

Thank you, thanks to you that I found the answer very detailed