Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?
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I'm running into an issue with user's not being able to move documents and/or folders because they are still open by someone, somewhere.
Basically, users have built a process where they have a network mapped drive that contain a bunch of folders and sub-folders that contain various documents (Word, Excel, PDF, etc). Multiple users access those folders and files as different employees have different parts to do in the process. Then, when everything is done and ready, someone will move files and/or entire folders from one place to another as part of this workflow.
The problem here is that many times users cannot move the files or folders sometimes because they get the message that someone has them still in use. Then, I get a call back in IT to request I see who has the file open and/or if I can close those files.
I have to go into Windows Computer Management > Shared Folders > Open Files and then manually search for the folder path and file and then see who has it open. Many times the user reports that they in fact do not have the file open and then I have to manually close the session.
My question is: is there a reason that the file/folder would still be open by the user or computer (perhaps and unrelease file handle in memory) even though they've closed out, or what? What is the cause of this if the user doesn't actually have it open? Are there any tools or settings I can change on the file server, the user workstation or the Microsoft Office apps to fix this?
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@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
My question is: is there a reason that the file/folder would still be open by the user or computer (perhaps and unrelease file handle in memory) even though they've closed out, or what?
This can happen for several reasons. But most commonly, I'd think, is that something failed during the closing process and it failed to communicate back to the server (over SMB) that the file was no longer needing to be locked. It's a pretty basic failure to happen and nothing untoward.
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@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
I'm running into an issue with user's not being able to move documents and/or folders because they are still open by someone, somewhere.
Basically, users have built a process where they have a network mapped drive that contain a bunch of folders and sub-folders that contain various documents (Word, Excel, PDF, etc). Multiple users access those folders and files as different employees have different parts to do in the process. Then, when everything is done and ready, someone will move files and/or entire folders from one place to another as part of this workflow.
The problem here is that many times users cannot move the files or folders sometimes because they get the message that someone has them still in use. Then, I get a call back in IT to request I see who has the file open and/or if I can close those files.
I have to go into Windows Computer Management > Shared Folders > Open Files and then manually search for the folder path and file and then see who has it open. Many times the user reports that they in fact do not have the file open and then I have to manually close the session.
My question is: is there a reason that the file/folder would still be open by the user or computer (perhaps and unrelease file handle in memory) even though they've closed out, or what? What is the cause of this if the user doesn't actually have it open? Are there any tools or settings I can change on the file server, the user workstation or the Microsoft Office apps to fix this?
I've had to deal with this same bug in the past. Sometimes files just get stuck with the lock still in place, even after the user has closed out of the program. You're already going through the proper process, welcome to Windows makework.
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@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
Are there any tools or settings I can change on the file server, the user workstation or the Microsoft Office apps to fix this?
if it is truly closed and no application on their desktop is using it, then it shouldn't be a setting problem. Do you have any known networking communication issues otherwise?
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This kind of thing is something where stuff like Nextcloud shines, because it has a check in/check out and workflow process. Sharepoint, too.
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@scottalanmiller said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
This kind of thing is something where stuff like Nextcloud shines, because it has a check in/check out and workflow process. Sharepoint, too.
that sounds awesome until you have to actually deal with it - when you're used to Windows Shares, checkin/out suck!
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@Dashrender said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@scottalanmiller said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
This kind of thing is something where stuff like Nextcloud shines, because it has a check in/check out and workflow process. Sharepoint, too.
that sounds awesome until you have to actually deal with it - when you're used to Windows Shares, checkin/out suck!
Stick to opening everything online and checkin/out is handled for you.
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@scottalanmiller said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
This kind of thing is something where stuff like Nextcloud shines, because it has a check in/check out and workflow process. Sharepoint, too.
Yeah actually we recently went to M365 and have Teams and SharePoint. We haven't grown into using everything yet but I suspect there is a better way to do this with those tools.
There are no other network issues and this problem just seems to occur every so often. Sometimes its multiple times a day for a few days, then its all good for a week. I just wanted to know if there is some good solution I'm not aware of.
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@travisdh1 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@Dashrender said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@scottalanmiller said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
This kind of thing is something where stuff like Nextcloud shines, because it has a check in/check out and workflow process. Sharepoint, too.
that sounds awesome until you have to actually deal with it - when you're used to Windows Shares, checkin/out suck!
Stick to opening everything online and checkin/out is handled for you.
I've never used the nextcloud attached editors, so I have no idea how those work... but if it's anything like excel/word files in sharepoint online, then that could be good.
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Apple OSX is notorious for pre-emptive locking all files on a share, even if a client has only 1 file open.
Any apple users?
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@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
There are no other network issues and this problem just seems to occur every so often. Sometimes its multiple times a day for a few days, then its all good for a week. I just wanted to know if there is some good solution I'm not aware of.
Reboot the server every night. Or force a restart of the file server service on it (aka server). It will release all locks. And people can still save their work if they have something open.
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@Pete-S said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
There are no other network issues and this problem just seems to occur every so often. Sometimes its multiple times a day for a few days, then its all good for a week. I just wanted to know if there is some good solution I'm not aware of.
Reboot the server every night. Or force a restart of the file server service on it (aka server). It will release all locks. And people can still save their work if they have something open.
The above is a bit hardcore. If you want a softer approach you can hack some powershell.
This looks like a good start:
https://sid-500.com/2017/09/11/powershell-find-open-files-smb-share/ -
@Pete-S said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
There are no other network issues and this problem just seems to occur every so often. Sometimes its multiple times a day for a few days, then its all good for a week. I just wanted to know if there is some good solution I'm not aware of.
Reboot the server every night. Or force a restart of the file server service on it (aka server). It will release all locks. And people can still save their work if they have something open.
Kind of a good idea anyway
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@scottalanmiller said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@Pete-S said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
There are no other network issues and this problem just seems to occur every so often. Sometimes its multiple times a day for a few days, then its all good for a week. I just wanted to know if there is some good solution I'm not aware of.
Reboot the server every night. Or force a restart of the file server service on it (aka server). It will release all locks. And people can still save their work if they have something open.
Kind of a good idea anyway
No it's really not, that's like rebooting a server because VSS Writers are getting hung daily, find and fix the problem rather than covering up the symptoms.
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@scottalanmiller said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@Pete-S said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
There are no other network issues and this problem just seems to occur every so often. Sometimes its multiple times a day for a few days, then its all good for a week. I just wanted to know if there is some good solution I'm not aware of.
Reboot the server every night. Or force a restart of the file server service on it (aka server). It will release all locks. And people can still save their work if they have something open.
Kind of a good idea anyway
Ug, it might be on the surface - but if you have users who leave things open all the time, this would wreak havoc on them.
I'd be highly against this unless you several things in place - a policy fully backed by top brass at your company that all files are closed at the end of the business day. Not just - yeah, that sounds like a good idea - but will actively slap down any complainers against this policy.
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@Dashrender said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@scottalanmiller said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@Pete-S said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@dave247 said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
There are no other network issues and this problem just seems to occur every so often. Sometimes its multiple times a day for a few days, then its all good for a week. I just wanted to know if there is some good solution I'm not aware of.
Reboot the server every night. Or force a restart of the file server service on it (aka server). It will release all locks. And people can still save their work if they have something open.
Kind of a good idea anyway
Ug, it might be on the surface - but if you have users who leave things open all the time, this would wreak havoc on them.
I'd be highly against this unless you several things in place - a policy fully backed by top brass at your company that all files are closed at the end of the business day. Not just - yeah, that sounds like a good idea - but will actively slap down any complainers against this policy.
I find top brass being the major part of the problem with open files.
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@Dashrender said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
but if you have users who leave things open all the time
That is their own damned fault. Stop defending your old boss for her horrible user practices.
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@Dashrender said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
Ug, it might be on the surface - but if you have users who leave things open all the time, this would wreak havoc on them.
What kind of havoc are you thinking about?
Because nothing happens, except that they will not have an exclusive lock on the file anymore.So the user opens a file on the computer, makes some changes and doesn't save and doesn't shut down. Then he takes a long vacation.
You restart the server because you had to apply some patches..
After a couple of weeks the user gets back and he can save the file as usual. No data loss, unless his computer is rebooted without him having saved the file first.Smart software, not Office at least not the older ones, remembers the timestamp when it opens the file and then detects if the timestamp has changed after it was opened. Then tells the user that someone has modified the file, do you wish to overwrite or save under another name.
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@Pete-S said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@Dashrender said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
Ug, it might be on the surface - but if you have users who leave things open all the time, this would wreak havoc on them.
What kind of havoc are you thinking about?
Because nothing happens, except that they will not have an exclusive lock on the file anymore.So the user opens a file on the computer, makes some changes and doesn't save and doesn't shut down. Then he takes a long vacation.
You restart the server because you had to apply some patches..
After a couple of weeks the user gets back and he can save the file as usual. No data loss, unless his computer is rebooted without him having saved the file first.Smart software, not Office at least not the older ones, remembers the timestamp when it opens the file and then detects if the timestamp has changed after it was opened. Then tells the user that someone has modified the file, do you wish to overwrite or save under another name.
The reason why nothing happens is because common software reads whatever document you open into memory (RAM). And every time you save, it writes the data back to disk.
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@Pete-S said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
@Dashrender said in Trouble with open files/folders on Windows file server?:
Ug, it might be on the surface - but if you have users who leave things open all the time, this would wreak havoc on them.
What kind of havoc are you thinking about?
Because nothing happens, except that they will not have an exclusive lock on the file anymore.So the user opens a file on the computer, makes some changes and doesn't save and doesn't shut down. Then he takes a long vacation.
You restart the server because you had to apply some patches..
After a couple of weeks the user gets back and he can save the file as usual. No data loss, unless his computer is rebooted without him having saved the file first.Smart software, not Office at least not the older ones, remembers the timestamp when it opens the file and then detects if the timestamp has changed after it was opened. Then tells the user that someone has modified the file, do you wish to overwrite or save under another name.
it's really not that clean, at least in my experience with Office 2016. Perhaps 2019 would do it better?
