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I am troubleshooting a difficult to solve MS Access file access problem which has so far defeated every Microsoft Access MVP. The way Access works is that when a user opens an Access db, Access creates a special locking file and makes the first user to open the database the 'file owner'. Even if this user closes the database, they remain the 'file owner' of this file until the last user closes the db and the locking file is deleted. Well for a certain group of users (and only them), when they are the file owner and another person closes the db, the file owner disappears from the file properties. After this, if anyone tries to reopen the db, they get a 'file in use' error. The key to this seems to be that the 'file owner' is not set.

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    FYI: This is why a shared Access DB sucks for multi-user. Convert to SQL to eliminate the need for stupid locking files and their problems. :) Aug 25, 2014 at 20:41
  • Microsoft is pretty clear about sharing Access databases on a file share. For group editing, it's the worst method. Have you considered one of the other three methods instead?
    – Jason
    Aug 25, 2014 at 21:02

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We have the front end in a shared folder, and the permissions are such that only certain people have write access. This means that Access cannot create the lock file, and everyone can use it.

We keep the data in a separate database that has appropriate permissions set, as it's a SQL server, but this would also work if the data is placed in a Read/Write share, and the front end in a Read only share

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    Microsoft calls this a split database and provides detailed instructions on how to set it up.
    – Jason
    Aug 27, 2014 at 18:57

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