Wrong user reported having file open

[Nathan Woodcock]

Possibly the wrong group for this, apologies in advance if so.

New Server 2022 RDS.  When a user has a file open on their standard file share (office doc, whatever) and another user goes to open that file, they get the message about "this file is already open by x".  However, x is always the same user, and it happens to be my domain admin account.  I've never opened these files before.  The popup itself is working correctly, it only pops up when another user genuinely has that file open, ie. the ~$ lock file is present. but its not reporting the user who actually has it open. It always says me.

I have been down the google rabbithole, and this or variations of this have happened since server 2003, and I am at a loss where to look.  Everyone suggests deleting the lock file, but thats not my problem, the lock file is created as it should be when a user opens a file, and it is gone when they close the file.   We also have another client we built in a near identical manner and environment who doesn't have the issue.

Doing a data migration from an old domain/VM structure we had detached and attached their data drive vhdx from an old VM on a different domain (that we originally had domain trust to, so all perms were already there for the now current single domain), but we also did that for the other client who doesn't have this issue.

The issue also occurs from a brand new win10 VM we created with access to the shares.  If I open a file as a random user on the RDS then go to open that file from the different user on a VM, it still reports that my DA account has the file open.   

Does anyone have any pointers?  I can't even find which part of the OS manages this feature, or any options controlling it.

cheers
Nathan
ITSAS Technical Lead
nat...@itsas.com

[Don Pickard]

I had this issue many years ago and the user name cited in the message was the user name entered during the installation process and was not related in any way to a process/thread/connection at all.

For us, it was a fileserver related issue (opportunistic locks, maybe?)

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[John Nobbs II]

I've experienced this same issue on a Windows Server 2012 R2 file server. Never having found a solution, I assumed maybe it was a bug in the OS and our eventual migration to Server 2022 would hopefully resolve the issue - however it sounds like that may not be the case. 

[Wright, John M]

Same here.  I’ve seen it misreport what user has the file open so routinely that I never trust the message the user receives.  I just always go to the Computer Management applet and get the right info from that.

 

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Subject: Re: [ntsysadmin] Wrong user reported having file open

 

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[Aakash Shah]

Not sure if this will help, but are you the owner of the files in question? What happens if you change the owner to something else like Administrators?

 

-Aakash Shah

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[Nathan Woodcock]

I thought that too as I am the owner of a bunch of files just because of the way we updated some permissions during the drive move but I confirmed it happens on every file whether I am the owner or not, we also tested in a share that had my account removed from it who has the file open.

It also occurs on the c Drive of the server which is a totally different virtual drive, I created a test so it seems to be the os level rather than drive specific. 

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[Nathan Woodcock]

Yeah, the problem is it worked perfectly on the old server 2019 :-( we've replaced and upgraded them and lost functionality so it's not a good look. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ntsysadmin/DM6PR12MB4372EE50FA8CAB0AF72DAAD291A8A%40DM6PR12MB4372.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.

[Nathan Woodcock]

Good pointer I'll have a look in that direction. 

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[Nathan Woodcock]

Found the cause.  Thanks for the hints here it led me on some new search directions.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\UserInfo

For every user on the server this key is set with my DA account username somehow.  Apparently updating it with %USERNAME% will fix it.  Will report back.

[Nathan Woodcock]

Issue resolved.  Added Group Policy to rollout the above registry change for all users, upon next user Log off/On registry successfully updated and they are now reporting as the user with the open file when another user tries to open.

[Michael B. Smith]

Whut?

 

Why on earth would an Office policy affect Windows behavior?

 

Or is the popup from Office? Based on the OP, I thought it was from Windows.

 

From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Nathan Woodcock
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To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com

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[Wright, John M]

Strange.  I see the same kind of misreporting by Office applications on workstations but Office isn’t installed on the file server (it’s not RDS) and the key doesn’t exist.

 

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John Wright

IT Support Specialist

1800 Old Bluegrass Avenue, Louisville, KY 40215

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From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Nathan Woodcock
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Subject: [ntsysadmin] Re: Wrong user reported having file open

 

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Issue resolved.  Added Group Policy to rollout the above registry change for all users, upon next user Log off/On registry successfully updated and they are now reporting as the user with the open file when another user tries to open.

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[Nathan Woodcock]

They must be intertwined/integrated somehow. Windows still gives the this file is open by a other user message if it's a pdf but doesn't say who at all. Only office apps list an actual user. In this environment anyway. 

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[Nathan Woodcock]

I don't have any further insight unfortunately other than in this environment that key resolved the issue for every user. Couldn't find any direct info about how that entire notification system functions. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ntsysadmin/DM6PR12MB437249FF991D144312275C5191AFA%40DM6PR12MB4372.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.

[Denes, Laszlo]

I had this on 2008/2-012/2016 and ended up downloading a huge list of tools from ntfs reporter to dameware etc to figure out the owner…. But it was never the install admin account…

 

Thank you in advance for your time.

 

Laszlo

 

Laszlo Denes

Technical Analyst Servers

Information Systems

t: ext. 214

lde...@torontograce.org

 

From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of John Nobbs II
Sent: Wednesday, November 8, 2023 8:18 AM
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Subject: Re: [ntsysadmin] Wrong user reported having file open

 

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