"File In Use" errors

Hi there,
Just last week we installed a new iMac (Intel) onto our network. In the process, we retired an old iMac running OS 9. The old iMac (and now the new) serves a small amount of files to other Macs runnings various versions of X (10.2.8 and 10.3.8).
Since moving to the new Mac, when we run our backup procedure -- which is really little more than copying a series of folders to external media -- we get File In Use or Locked errors. The errors seem to correspond to files that were worked on that day, but aren't actually OPEN on those remote machines.
The types of files are Word documents. Each version of Word is bonafide X version, nothing run in the Classic environment.
Since we shut down the machines at night ultimately, I have asked people to shut down the machines before they run the back and see if the error recurs. If it does, I've asked them to reboot the iMac (Intel).
Is there anything else I can do to resolve this?

I Presume this is within a network right? Do all of the files have read/write permissions to them? Have you tried making the ownership of the files shared instead of a distinct user? You can click "Get Info" on the files by Right Clicking (ctrl-click). Maybe toggle some of the settings in there. In addition to that since your on a network are you using Apple's File sharing method?
Sorry if I didn't understand your question correctly.
-Internet Wiz™

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This did not work. I still get an error trying to repair with Disk Utility.
It gets to
Starting repair tool:
Checking file system
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
The volume MEDIA could not be verified completely.
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
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I am having the exact same problem -- Itunes version 7 update seems to have created this issue. I get this error message about every five minutes if my Ipod is plugged into my computer, "Ipod cannot be updated. Required file is in use." Super annoying. I noticed a solution posted on this forum but it doesn't seem to work for Macs. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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Hello,
Been having a very similar issue in our environment and just came across this thread while Googling and looking for answers.
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I tried it in Powerpoint just out of curiosity, but it saved properly - Word saves properly as well.
Been doing a bunch of testing to try and narrow it down, and this is what I've found:
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Excel 2013 -> Server 2008 R2 = no error message.
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<o:p>We've been leaning towards the PeerLink replication as the culprit up to this point, but last night I did some testing with the PeerLink Collaboration turned off, and
still received the error message.. so now I'm even more confused!
I see that it's been a few months since your post.. have you made any progress here?</o:p>

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Can't Save - File In Use Or Left Open

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Error-Receiver File Adapter using Variable substitution when file is empty

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You can implement this by writing the module to throw an exception or whatever method you want to execute.
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Cannot delete file - tried everything - file in use by Windows Explorer error

Hi - I have tried now for 2-3 hours trying to delete an .mkv file from my "Downloads" folder
It says the file is in use by Windows Explorer and cannot be deleted
I have tried deleting it using Del command prompt as me and as Administrator (I am the Admnistrator, there are no other users) - no luck
I have tried Safe Boot and then deleting - no luck
I have tried rebooting many times and then deleting - no luck
Any ideas? It's driving me nuts

hi to all who have this bug- "file in use by Windows Explorer error"
this is the only way that it works:
1.type cmd in search box
2.go to the drive and the directory the file is in ,for example:
after you type cmd you have a black screen with c:\user\
type in the drive the file is in and hit enter example - d: than hit enter
than you should see d:\>
now click the directory the problem file is in ,for example i will call the directory "movies" type in this- cd movies
now you will see this d:\movies>
to delete the file type this: del filename.mkv (dont forget the .mkv or any other file extension) don't hit enter yet, first open task manager (cntrl+shift+esc) go to process tab than right click on explorer.exe choose and click on end process
now your desktop should disappear. get back to the "cmd" window and hit enter.
now the file is deleted. now go back to the task manager and click on "file" on the upper left corner then on new task then type in "explorer.exe"
and you are done
please note that the file name you choose to delete cant be with spaces between the letters .if so you will need to change it in the same way in the cmd window only the comand will be instead of "del filename.mkv"(for example) after you are in the
right drive and directory:
rename "test space.mkv" testspace.mkv
hope i helped
this is the only way it workes
Instead of running a CMD prompt and typing everything, just start up Winrar or Winzip, kill Explorer, then delete problem MKV files to your hearts content within Winrar or Winzip.
Winrar and Winzip will navigate your folders as well.
After you are done, create a new Explorer task.
or..... if you need to rename MKV files, just rename them within Winrar/Winzip with Explorer not running.
I change the MKV extension to AVI (in Winrar with Explorer killed) in order to avoid Explorer issues, if I ever want to move the files in the future without needing to kill Explorer all the time to do so .
Using WinRAR works for me. Using the cmd function becomes complicated when I cannot rename my file with the rename command".

"file in use" and other "unexpected" error messages

I may have found a bug in Tiger, and in case nobody has a plausible explanation for the problem, I will send a bug report:
I copied a locked file (shows a little lock symbol in its icon) from one Mac to the other via a network share (using Finder). I then tried to open that file on the other Mac, but failed with the error message "file in use". But the computer the file had been copied from had already disconnected and shut down, and the Mac I had copied the file to had booted once.
I then looked at the file security settings, but found nothing abnormal. But I was not allowed to change any of the security settings (owner and permissions).
I then tried the Terminal and tried commands like "sudo chmod" or "sudo chown", and got nothing but error messages.
What kind of operating system does not allow the supervisor ("root") to change file permissions?!?
I then tried to repair the volume, but DiskUtility thinks all is OK. Fine. And the file is obviously NOT in use (otherwise the volume could not have been unmounted).
I finally tried the tool SetFileInfo from the development system to change permissions and type/creator. "sudo SetFileInfo -whatever" gives "unexpected error". Aha, "unexpected". So there is something wrong in Denmark. Or California.
At least there is one hint what's going wrong: GetFileInfo shows an abnormal type/creation combination, something like "brok" and "macs".
The only thing I finally managed to do with the file was "sudo rm". I got some warning about unknown user and unknown group and override whatever, then the file was deleted. At least I think so. After removing the "locked" flag the copy process went fine, and the copy of the file could be opened on the other Mac, so it seems that there is a problem with copying "locked" files.

Thank you for that hint! It does not fix the bug, but opens a way to a workaround.
I repeated the test, i.e. copied a locked file, and indeed the copy is protected with a "uchg" flag.
Removing the "uchg" flag still left the file locked, i.e. no other attribute (owner/group/rwx) could be changed. But the SetFile command now was able to remove the creator ('MACS') and type ('brok') settings.
After that the "second lock" had been removed, and now the "locked" attribute could be removed, and after having removed this third lock the file was accessible.
So I think that was enough of (unpaid) investigation, and I am going to send a bug report to Apple.

"File In Use" errors

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