Failed to Open file - The file is in use by another user

[Sigfredo]

Hello,

Firstly, thanks for the help to all the community,

I'm a new user on Affinity Publisher 2, but I was having the same error in Publisher 1 (I thought with the 2 version will be OK)

Sometimes, when I open a file I have this bug:

 

 

I'm opening directly the file from a Synology NAS, and with a Macbook 

 

The only solution I've found is to rename the file from Finder, but I can't rename again with the original name. It's a bite annoying.

Do anyone have this problem? Do you found a solution?

Thanks

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums. 

The problem you're seeing should only occur in the V2 applications, which have implemented a file-locking technology (~lock~ files) that was not present in V1, as explained in this FAQ: 

When you get that message, there are two expected situations:

1. As the message indicates, the file is already open in the application and machine indicated in the message. In that case, you should not try to Open it again until the other application/user/machine is done with it.
   or
2. The file was open in the application and machine indicated in the message, but the application or machine crashed. In that situation, the lock file won't be deleted. But it will be treated as non-existent after 5 minutes have elapsed without the application updating the lock. In this case, you could delete the lock file, or simply wait a few minutes more.

Sometimes, though, the lock files can remain when they should be deleted, and there have been several bugs logged about that. Again, in this case, waiting a few minutes (no more than 5) should let you Open the file. Or you could delete the lock file yourself to proceed immediately.

If you can describe the scenario that lead up to this, we may be able to tell whether it is situation #2 above or one of the already-known bugs that ends up with the files not being deleted.

[Sigfredo]

12 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Affinity forums. 

The problem you're seeing should only occur in the V2 applications, which have implemented a file-locking technology (~lock~ files) that was not present in V1, as explained in this FAQ: 

When you get that message, there are two expected situations:

1. As the message indicates, the file is already open in the application and machine indicated in the message. In that case, you should not try to Open it again until the other application/user/machine is done with it.
   or
2. The file was open in the application and machine indicated in the message, but the application or machine crashed. In that situation, the lock file won't be deleted. But it will be treated as non-existent after 5 minutes have elapsed without the application updating the lock. In this case, you could delete the lock file, or simply wait a few minutes more.

Sometimes, though, the lock files can remain when they should be deleted, and there have been several bugs logged about that. Again, in this case, waiting a few minutes (no more than 5) should let you Open the file. Or you could delete the lock file yourself to proceed immediately.

If you can describe the scenario that lead up to this, we may be able to tell whether it is situation #2 above or one of the already-known bugs that ends up with the files not being deleted.

 

 

Hello Walt,

 

Sorry, I didn't found this message. So, I've ran two tests. Indeed, when I open the file on the desktop (for example), the lock file is created and when I close it, the lock file is deleted. But, when I do the same on the NAS, the lock file is still there after closing the Affinity software and when I try to delete it, I've this message:

 

So I can't open anymore the file. By the way, the file is still there after two hours.

 

 

 

[Sigfredo]

28 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

In that case, you should not try to Open it again until the other application/user/machine is done with it.

By the way, there's no other User, machine or application with the file opened, is always the same user on the same application and the same machine.

Merci for your help

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Sigfredo said:

But, when I do the same on the NAS, the lock file is still there after closing the Affinity software

Are you

1. closing the file, then the application, or
2. leaving the file open and closing the application?

Both should, of course, properly close the file and remove the lock, but perhaps if you're using approach 2 the lock is not being removed for some reason. In that case, using approach 1 would at least give you a workaround.

[Sigfredo]

I've tried both approaches with the same result:

 

I open a .afpub file, a .afpub~lock~ is created, I close the file and the app and the .afpub~lock~ persist

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, Sigfredo said:

... So, I've ran two tests. Indeed, when I open the file on the desktop (for example), the lock file is created and when I close it, the lock file is deleted. But, when I do the same on the NAS, the lock file is still there after closing the Affinity software and when I try to delete it, I've this message:

I am assuming the NAS ~Lock~ file is in the trash can. You should be able to force the trash to empty by holding down the Option key on your Mac when you choose Finder > Empty Trash...