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  1. #1
    RustmanZ is offline Novice
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    Locked Exclusively for Network Users


    I've tried searching but not managed to find anything that quite solves our problem.

    Our situation is a legacy VB6 application using Access as a back end in a multi user environment.
    The database is on an external drive connected to a computer running Windows10..

    Other users are mostly still using Windows7. This has been the case for a couple of years. So, nothing new in terms of the environment.

    Recently we got the "Locked Exclusively by another user" message on all machines. I initially thought that an instance of the application had crashed while editing or with a DBGrid open. That turned out not to be the case. Rebooting everything didn't help.
    The icon that usually appears next to the Access file in Windows Explorer when a grid is open or the file is open in Access is not present.
    I wondered if an update had somehow changed permissions somewhere but could not find anything. I opened the Database file in Access to see that Editing is still allowed.

    So, I lastly decided that maybe the file was corrupt. So, I replaced the current file with previous day's backup and that solved the problem for the machine attached to the external drive where the database is located.But....same message on all other computers. I've experimented with using quite old backups that were well before this problem developed in case we had suffered some sort of corruption that only affects a networked user. No dice.

    Otherwise, the network functions as usual in terms of file sharing etc...

    So, not being a developer or an IT guy I'm stumped.

    Any Ideas?

    Thanks,
    Jon

  2. #2
    ranman256's Avatar
    ranman256 is online now VIP
    Windows Vista Access 2010 32bit
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    If the app doesn't lock records then there shouldn't be a problem.
    Using an Access front end also allows many users to enter data.

    But if it does lock, and many users try to use the db, and it crashes, it tends to corrupt the db.
    Backup daily (or hourly)
    Since I don't know what your app does, I cannot say for sure.

  3. #3
    isladogs's Avatar
    isladogs is offline MVP / VIP
    Windows 10 Access 2010 32bit
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    Does each user have their own copy of the VB6 app.
    Is it possible that someone is opening the BE exclusively? Possibly opening it direct? If opened exclusively, no lock file is created.
    Colin, Access MVP, Website, email
    The more I learn, the more I know I don't know. When I don't know, I keep quiet!
    If I don't know that I don't know, I don't know whether to answer

  4. #4
    RustmanZ is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by ranman256 View Post
    If the app doesn't lock records then there shouldn't be a problem.
    Using an Access front end also allows many users to enter data.

    But if it does lock, and many users try to use the db, and it crashes, it tends to corrupt the db.
    Backup daily (or hourly)
    Since I don't know what your app does, I cannot say for sure.
    It does not lock except the locking that is incorporated into a DBGrid when displayed (very rarely used). We have had the case where someone left a grid open and forced a restart of Windows. The Tools>Repair Database menu function has always worked in the past.

    What is different/weird is that the one workstation can access it but none of the other computers on the network can.

    We do backup daily. The reason I had tried to restore from a two month old backup was to see if going back to well before the problem occurred would yield results. But it's not just the working database. Any Access database produces the locked message.

    Really seems like it should be a Windows problem more than an Access problem.

    Thanks,
    Jon

  5. #5
    ranman256's Avatar
    ranman256 is online now VIP
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    Sometimes the db will leave its lock file even tho nobody is in it. (.lccdb)
    this can cause the same error.
    delete the file. If it deletes then good, if not then someone is actually in it.

  6. #6
    RustmanZ is offline Novice
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    Yup, that's what I though too. So, I deleted the file, took a file from a backup, changed the name...still exhibits the same behavior.
    I have a variety of databases and they all give the locked message. I copied one onto another computer to run it locally. Don't remember the outcome now. I think it was still locked which was a surprise.


    I'll try that again to confirm as well as creating a new dummy dbase from scratch and try to connect locally and across the network and report back.

    Thanks,
    Jon

  7. #7
    RustmanZ is offline Novice
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    So, just to tidy this up.
    The problem turned out to be network related.
    Still unclear as to how or why but we started experiencing other network issues.
    Eventually, we just reinstalled Windows across the whole network and problem solved.

    Jon

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