When an Excel file is locked on a network share, how does it know who locked the file?

Posted by ScottStonehouse on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by ScottStonehouse
Published on 2012-01-12T17:28:57Z Indexed on 2012/07/09 21:18 UTC
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Filed under:

Windows

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network-share

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excel

We are using Excel 2010 and sometimes users are working from a network share. When a user on the network opens the file in Excel, the file is locked for editing - this is the expected behavior. When another user tries to open the file, Excel gives the message

[filename] is locked for editing by 'John Doe'

The problem is, the user is always this one particular user's name, no matter who actually has the file open. Where does Excel get this info, and how do I fix it?

Update: I should have mentioned that in Excel, under Options (General), the correct user names have been set up. That is not where this user name is coming from.

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