Sharon is the only one with access to the workbooks that she creates, yet sometimes when she goes to save her work she gets a message that someone else has made changes to the workbook and that she needs to rename it.
This type of message is most likely to come up if your workbooks are stored on a network drive. With networks, there are often all sorts of operations going on in the background over which you have no control. Your files could be getting backed up, virus checkers could be examining them, network connections could be dropped and established again, software could be "touching" (updating) the file's time and date, or any number of other things.
While such actions are understandable, they could be confusing Excel when it comes to the workbook you have open. This is particularly true if the workbook file's time or date is updated while you are working on it. When Excel goes to save the workbook, it notices that the date and time have changed and then tells you that someone else made changes.
If your computer is not connected to a network and the workbooks, therefore, are on your local hard drive, the cause for the problem is even more perplexing. It is possible that some sort of background program has made a change to the file that Excel interprets as another user's action. For instance, you may have a third-party backup program that backed up the workbook while you had it open, yet somehow still modified a file attribute or two. If Excel notes this, then it may assume that someone else changed the file.
It is also possible that the workbook on which you are working was improperly closed the last time you had it open (not this time), and that Excel may be confused by that.
It is also possible that date and time changes on your system could be confusing Excel. I've had this happen when traveling between time zones. Let's say, for instance, that I'm in the Mountain time zone and save a file at 2:15 pm. I then immediately take a relatively quick trip to the Pacific time zone and my system recognizes that I've in a new location. Windows helpfully updates the time on my system, and I open the workbook at 2:05 pm in the new location.
If I go to save the file, Excel will see that there is a copy from 2:15 pm, which is later than my current time. (Excel isn't smart enough to know that 50 minutes has actually transpired.) It assumes that someone else made changes, and won't let me save mine.
As you can tell, there could be any number of causes for the problem. Regardless, the only thing you can do is to save the file under another name, delete the original, and then rename the new workbook with the filename you want used.
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2019-10-30 11:20:41
RD
I have an even stranger version of this error. The excel file named in the error message is not the file that I'm opening and is not related to it in any way. There are no linked cells or formulas. I get this error every time I open any Excel file, even files that are on my hard drive. Why is Excel giving me a message about a file that I do not have open, and actually have never opened? Office365.
2019-05-23 11:49:56
Staci
I realize this is an old post, but I'm having this problem now.
In my case, the workbook is on a network drive. Occasionally Excel will allow another user to open the workbook and make changes. When I go to save my changes, I get the message telling me that "Someone else is working in foldername\workbook name right now. Please try again later."
So then I have to contact my assistant , ask her to do a save as with a different name for her changes, then I save my changes. Then I pull up her version and type those changes into the original that I saved.
I just can't understand why it doesn't tell her that the workbook she's trying to open is locked for editing by me. It just lets her open it up and start working.
Maybe there's a problem with the network drive? Am I periodically losing access to the network drive at the same time she tries to open the workbook? Something not even remotely related to the network?
I would really appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
Thanks,
Staci
2015-07-31 09:18:02
Thelma
THANK YOU. This has happened so many times since updating to Excel 2010. Now I know why.
2015-07-27 09:52:21
Michael36064
Ever since we upgraded to Excel 2010 this has been coming up on our network. When it asks if you want a read-only version or be notified when it's available, I click on the available option and usually within 30 seconds it comes back to say it's ready to be used as a read/write file.
I always suspected it was the network catching up with the files.
2015-07-25 07:00:43
Petros
It would be ideal to have a screenshot or exact error wording in the article.
I believe that I have seen this error happen when a workbook is accidentally open in another Excel INSTANCE. Closing the 1st instance resolves the issue. Read more:
http://www.spreadsheet1.com/multiple-excel-instances.html
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