Document Shows as 'In Use' by Another User

What would you do if you started a new session with Word, and then went to open a document, only to see a message stating that the document you want to open is "locked for editing by another user?" Word gives you the option to open a read-only version of the document, but you want to edit the real document. What do you do?

To understand what happened, it is helpful to understand a little of how Word opens documents. When you open a document, Word creates what is known as an owner file for the document. This file is created in the same folder as the document you are opening. Its name consists of a tilde (~) followed by a dollar sign ($) and then the rest of the file name of the document you are opening. For instance, if you try to open a document named BigBudget.docx, then Word creates an owner file with the name ~$gBudget.docx.

The owner file is a way for Word to realize who has the document open at the current time. It is a temporary file (it is deleted when you close the document) that typically holds the login name of the person that opened the document. (The contents can vary, depending on the network configuration of your system and where the document is stored.)

This is where the confusion comes in. If you see the error message described at the beginning of this tip, it means that one of three conditions exists:

• Word was shut down improperly and the owner file could not be deleted. For instance, the power to your machine was interrupted for some reason.
• The document is accessible on a network and a different user has the document open.
• A second instance of Word is running, and the document is open in that copy of Word.

If you are sure that there is no other user accessing the file, and you don't have it open in another copy of Word, then you can follow these steps so you can open the file normally:

1. Get out of Word and restart your system. (This flushes out any errant processes that may be "stuck" in memory.)
2. Using Windows Explorer, display the folder that contains the document you tried to open.
3. If you see an owner file in the folder (named according to the format previously described), delete it.

You should now be able to start Word and successfully open the document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11185) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Document Shows as 'In Use' by Another User.