07 July, 2011

The file may not exist, may be in use, or the Web server is temporarily busy.

Yesterday, we received another ticket which is based on Office issue in collaboration with SharePoint.

Excel Version: Office 2003
SP Version: SharePoint 2007


Some users are receiving the following error message when they are trying to save and check-in a document
[File name and path] cannot be accessed. The file may not exist, may be in use, or the Web server is temporarily busy.


This is a very strange issue becuase it has multiple resolutions so its very difficult to conclude regarding the one perfect solution.

Some Observation:
This behavior occurs because only one user at a time can make changes to a document that is stored in a document library in SharePoint. A user must check out a document from the document library before that user can make changes tothat document. If a document is checked out by one user, other users have read-only access to that document. Other users cannot change thatdocument or see the changes that are made to the document until that document is checked in. After the document is checked in, another user can check out the document and make changes to it.

By design, This behavior occurs for documents that are stored in document libraries, including shared Excel 2003 workbooks and other document types that support an option where multiple users canmake changes to the document at the same time.

Resolution that i had applied for my ticket:
1. Start
2. Programs
3. Microsoft Office
4. Open any blank office excel 2003
5. Help
6. Expand the double arrow/options
7. Detect and Repair
8. Excel will run for few moments and repaired if corruptions are there
9.  Once it gets complete then please close the excel and open the sharepoint site in a new explorer


Some more resolutions that you may try:

Resolution#1:If its Office 2007 then please try this:
1. Start
2. Programs
3. Microsoft Office
4. Open any blank office word document
5. Office ribbon (on the top)
6. Word options
7. Resources
8. Run Microsoft Office Diagnostics


Resolution#2:A fix was release in September (August updates)http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956064
or cumulativehttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/957022

Resolution#3: It seems to 'always' happen when it is a document library that requires check out to edit. Try to uncheck this option and check the results

Resolution#4:
Check if the user has multiple domain accounts. If he is using one domain account for the machine/Desktop and second domain account for the sharepoint site then also you will face this problem. Make sure, the logged in domain account is already added on the sharepoint site.


Resolution#5:If somebody is using a inbuilt SQL version of SharePoint then make sure that you have enough storage available so that you can do the check outs and remaining procedures, Thanks

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know...
I would be more than HAPPY 2 HELP YOU as well as RESOLVES your ISSUES :-)

3 comments:

  1. Hi

    I have a client that has this problem. We are using SP server 2007 (standard) and the client has Excel 2003. None of your suggestions were helpful in our case
    - we instructed the client to run 'Detect and repair' (didn't help)
    - I did not install the cumulative update you suggested because we have a newer CU installed (December 2008, version no of SP is 12.0.0.6335)
    - the document library is configured NOT to require check out to edit
    - the user does not have multiple domain accounts
    - we are not using the built-in SQL server, we have SQL Server 2005 standard

    The problem only occurs if the users tries to open and save an existing document. If he gives the doc a new name then he can save it just fine.

    Would you happen to have any further ideas/suggestions on how to resolve the issue ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The KB that i have mentioned hereis benlogs to Office and not sharepoint.

    Please have a look and install on the client machine and check the results: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956064

    one more suggestion: Is this issue belongs to specfically for those machine which are having office 2003 ? correct ??

    Does this machine has office 2007 component apart from office 2003 ? I mean to say start-Programs-MS Office-Please check the number of components thier...

    also one more thing-Instead of directly clicking on the file, if we follow the best practices as:
    1) Hover your mouse to that file and you will get the dropdown
    2)Edit in Microsoft Office Excel

    Please check the results and let me know, Thanks for your patience

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your response.

    It turned out that actually the problem was that the user user just did not have the right to edit that particular document!
    So basically it was my mistake for not checking for the permissions in the first place

    ReplyDelete

Your feedback is always appreciated. I will try to reply to your queries as soon as possible- Amol Ghuge

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