I have a Windows 2003 server R2 Sp1 and XP SP2 workstations with Office 2000. Occasionally 2 users are able to access the same excel 2000 spreadsheet at the same time without receiving a file open notice until the second user tries to save the file. Then they receive a message stating that the file is in use and that they can do a save as. Usually if a user tries to access a file that is already in use, they receive a file in use popup and they are given the choice to open read only, notify or close. This issue does not happen all the time and is not specific to one particular file. And the file was never setup for sharing. I've checked my security and permissions for the shares and I don't see a solution. I've suspected file corruption and copied the data into a new file and replaced the old file thinking that would solve the problem and no luck. Is there something I'm missing?

Hello, firstly I'd check the file permissions for the file that is on the server and the permissions of the users who are accessing the file.

Have you tried opening the file with three users?

Regards

Martin

Thanks for the info. I have not tried 3 users, but the issue is not consistent so it is impossible to recreate the issue.

I'm starting to suspect some server 2003 updates that were installed through automatic updates to be the culprit. As they were the last change before the issue started occurring and since the error is inconsistent I'm having a hard time believing it's the permissions. I rebooted the server and I'm going to keep an eye on whether the issue still occurs (trying to rule out all outside factors). If so then I'll move on to your suggestion.

Open the file, Tools - Share Workbook. Editing Tab - check Allow Changes by more than 1 user at a time. Gets around the issue of the file being in use by 1 person.

HTH,
Kevin

Thanx for the info, but I think you're missing my point. I DON'T want 2 users to access a spreadsheet at the same time. The second user should receive a notification that the file is in use by another user and they are not receiving that notification and it doesn't say that they have a read only version of the file until they go to close the file.

I'm having the same issue with Excel 2003.

We don't have file sharing setup on the workbook.

I thought by default if one person has a workbook open and someone else tries to open it they'd get the Notify option, however this has stopped happening recently. Now when the customer goes to save they get prompted with a message saying the file has changed since they opened it and do they want to overwrite changes.

Is there a new hidden setting somewhere that I can switch on for the document asking it to notify on open if the file is in use?

Found the attached MS KB article, not sure if it works because I need to get our systems guys to OK it before trying it on a PC, but it looks promising.

You receive a "The file may have been changed" error message when you save a workbook to a network server in Excel 2002 or in Excel 2003