Files locked by unknown user

[Bill]

@maharg: You need to be asking questions about Windows 10 on a Windows 10 forum. I've never changed the email address for my Windows 10 account and would have to research how to do it. As a guess I'd say that the "Add" button would allow you to add a new account, not edit your existing account.

[maharg]

@maharg: You need to be asking questions about Windows 10 on a Windows 10 forum. I've never changed the email address for my Windows 10 account and would have to research how to do it. As a guess I'd say that the "Add" button would allow you to add a new account, not edit your existing account.

Hi Bill, I'm rather confused now. Is the AOO Security tab info, ie my old address, controlled by Windows?
What would happen if I closed my current AOO account and registered a new one?

[Bill]

Every file on your computer has a Security tab controlled by Windows. There are no accounts for the AOO program.

[maharg]

Hi Bill,
Yesterday I received a major Update from Windows/Microsoft. Today when I went into AOO expecting the usual locked problems there weren't any. All the files opened properly with nothing marked 'file in use' 'Read only'. Maybe there was a glitch the update sorted.
Anyway I'm a very happy man now.
Thanks for all your advice.
Graham

[martinbean]

I also had the Windows major update, but nothing has changed with my OO "locked by unknown user" problem. I am just living with it, it appeared without my doing anything, maybe it will disappear one day in the same way ! It must be personal to my PC otherwise a lot more Windows 10/OO users would be reporting the problem.

[teawren]

Looking for help with this. Everything was fine yesterday and now today every single file cannot be opened by OO with the dreaded document file XXX is locked for editing by unknown user. Even files I haven't looked at in months is locked.
I can open as read only, then try to "save as" with an amended file name and am told that I don't have permission to save.
What the heck is going on?

[RoryOF]

Enable viewing of hidden files, then with OpenOffice closed, open the OpenOffice User profile.

As you are using Windows close OpenOffice and the Quickstarter. Open File
Explorer. Copy and paste %appdata%\OpenOffice\4 in the File Explorer (sometimes called Windows Explorer)
Address Bar and press Enter.
Beside the "user" folder you may see a lock file. Delete this and start OpenOffice

Check also that you have read/write permissions in the directories in which your files live. If you do not have these permissions, add them.

[videobruce]

I have this same issue. When I did a search for this, I found 3+ other threads on the same subject dated back to 2012. I have used OO for a number of years now, but never encountered this before.

The proposed solutions DO NOT WORK.

First off, here are my specifics;
1. Running Win 7 Pro
2. Using OpenOffice Portable v4.13
3. No active A/V programs including that foolish (so called) M$ Defender
4. Searching the program directory, the file structure listed previously is different, at least the way the text is typed. (Since it is a 'Portable' application, I add those porgrams to a separate "Portables" folder, not under Program Files).
5. There are no leftover 'locked' files in the folder I'm accessing.
6. I always have 'Show Hidden Files & Folders' enabled (AFAIC there is NO reason not to show them)
7. The 'locked' temporary file is removed when I close the file that is open.

8. Lastly, I have noticed on some recent .doc files I created, there is no date shown in Explorer. The column entry is blank.

If some other file elsewhere is in a open/locked state, can that be a/the problem? if so, how could you ever find it?

[videobruce]

Ok, how's this;

If I open a file thru Explorer (with OO closed) the problem exists.

If I start OO first, then open the same file using the 'Open' icon in the Menu bar, no problem.

WTF??

[RoryOF]

I have just checked: on my Windows XP machine, using OO 4.1.5, I have no such problem, no matter how I open an OpenOffice file.

[videobruce]

Lucky you. I'm running W7.

[Villeroy]

8. Lastly, I have noticed on some recent .doc files I created, there is no date shown in Explorer. The column entry is blank.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... alprevious

Well, Microsoft and the internet. Lets hope that MS will be gone in a not too many years.

[videobruce]

That link refers to a different format file using a completely different program. AFA M$ being gone, I kinda doubt that. No one has the ***** to stand up to them, but at least Idiot Exploiter is mostly out of the picture being replaced with Google & Chrome-Dome which appears to be just as bad.

Anyway, I grabbed the current v4.15 Portable file, extracted it to a named folder, C&P'ed it to my "Portables" folder in the root of 'C' and tried it again. So far it seems ok.

[Salmonella]

After reading all these responses and getting a massive headache, I found a SIMPLE solution that worked for me and may perhaps help some one else:

I had recently installed Avast Antivirus (huge mistake!!) I uninstalled it and...voila!!! - no more problem with my OO documents!

[envyeyes]

For Avast Users, I discovered that the Ransomware Shield will cause this error. I've disabled mine for now, until they fix it or give us options to configure the shield behavior (ie. don't lock OO file types.). Interestingly, I can change the extension to a non-OO extension and manually open the files in OO without trouble, so it is definitely locking the file based on extension and causing havoc.

[nolanchrist007]

Both Microsoft Office and Libre Office use lock files.

It will be created, when the document is being opened, and deleted when closing. So if your computer or Libre Office will lock up, the file won't be deleted causing a new instance to think, the document is open.

That will save you from two people editing the same file at the same time, even on a unstable network connection.

The filename will be ~lock.filename.odt, so renaming the document solved the issue for you, as there is no ~lock.newfilename.odt.

[envyeyes]

Thanks, Chris, but that wasn't the issue in this case. Any OO file, even a newly created file in OO, would behave this way. As soon as the file was saved, any further attempts to edit the file would be thwarted by Avast. If I created a new file in OO, saved it with a non-OO extension, and re-opened, the problem didn't happen. So Avast was the culprit, as it was locking the file open while it scanned it, but it (for some reason) wasn't releasing the file. Or, perhaps, it was locking the file on access (trying to open it) and OO was scoffing at the locked file. Either way, it was Avast. I haven't tested this since, and I'm writing this from a system that doesn't use Avast, so I cannot check if the problem was ever solved. Likely by now, they have fixed the problem.

[Redding]

I just experienced this, and found that BitDefender (anti-virus) was the culprit. Every time I did a spreadsheet, it would only come up as read only after saving. A dialogue box comes up in BD when this happens (BD does this by default!) and you have to click the switch to the right next to the app title to have it stop doing it for a particular app, such as OA. This may be true of other AV products. Hope this helps.