"File currently locked by another user" error in Windows Explorer

Howdy Folks,

After looking really close into this issue, we have some information to share. We’re still looking into what it would take to fix the issue, but for now, we have a number of workarounds to offer. To read more, check out this Knowledge Center article:

help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000178

Thanks!

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I am using 8,1 64 Bit, I just answer no to opening the read only file, then navigate back to the file and re-open and there is no prob.

Yes, that is what I also finally discovered. Thanks for your input.

Hi I am having the same issue on Win 8.1.
At the time of encountering the issue, was using the details view of windows explorer, but had the preview pane open. The “workaround” mentioned in the beginning of this thread was not effective, however, killing the COM-Surrogate Process mentioned by jj0gen0inf and geoffrey effectively fixed the issue.

And I found another post that says file locking occurs on Win7 also with the Details pane and Popup file tooltips active. (It is in the Microsoft Excel Support Team blog. The item was posted 3 years ago.)

ALL 3 need to be turned OFF:
Apparently as you are double-clicking to open the file, Explorer is trying to read information about the file, to display in the Details, or popup tooltips.

[quote]III. Turn off the Preview Pane, Details Pane and pop ups that show information about file and desktop items

This is a problem that has been reported to affect Windows 7 clients only, not Windows XP. The problem here may have something to do with the Windows Explorer in Windows 7. We are currently investigating this further and will post more information as it is available.

In a Windows Explorer window, do the following:

  1. Right click on the Start Button.
  2. Click ‘Open Windows Explorer’.
  3. At the top left click Organize > Layout
  4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.
  5. On a Windows menu, click on Tools > Folder Options. In the box that opens up, click on the View tab. Scroll down the list to “Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items” and clear the checkbox and then click OK.
    [/quote]
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Hi jj0gen0info
Is the preview pane the thumbnail view in the Win 8.1 file folder?
What COM-Surrogate are you talking about. Just saw Com-Surrogate in Task-Manager. Just click on it and delete it? There looks like two of them. Should I increase memory page file size?

Tried that in Win 8.1 but still got
I think jj0gen0 might be onto it but I need to know how he/she deletes the Com-Surrogate running in the Task-Manager every time SketchUp runs. Mean while I’ll open the SketchUp program, stop the Com-Surrogate and then open the file I need to find out if it opens the file without read only. Lost a whole day of input because it was read only.

Ok. jj0gen0, I finally got the file back by in the last save. Just like AutoCAD I opened the last saved or .SKB file and renamed it to the original file name and it actually produced the drawing I did yesterday that had told me it was read only when I tried to save it


COM-Surrogate in Task-Manager after opening the .SKB/backup file.

Right clicked COM-Surrogate and clicked details to get this.

I’m not going to delete it as it maybe a licensing thing on the 30 day trial. I believe it occurred when I changed the Win 8.1 system mouse settings from single click to open to double click to open and slowed the mouse action down as it was definitely messing with SketchUp performance. I believe that there where two instances of the model opened or two instances of SketchUp running and that caused the ERROR shown. Could be wrong though. I’ll find out latter. If anybody knows about this subject for sure. Please let everyone know.

I’m not deleting the COM-Surrogate DHL file yet.

Llynrice, Check my post bellow. you have the same system as mine and the preview pain should be set to Extra large icons not details?

Only delete the dllhost.exe (in details) that shows your username; the others are systems apps.

dllhost.exe is a system file and should not actually be deleted from the “Windows/System32” directory.

The word used should be “end task” not “delete” !

I had the same problem. Followed your advice and killed COM surrogate (times 3) in task manager. Now sketchup works fine.

The problem I had was insidious - when I hit Save As… the files were not actually saved; only the original would be in the folder, along with the autosaved versions.

Bad bug to have. Needs to be fixed ASAP…

BR,

Jim

Glad I was able to help. I agree it should be fixed ASAP, but they just don’t seem to get the message.

I have seen this in other Apps, but most Apps work ok; leading me to believe this was just poor integration with Windows.

eh? :smile: <Post must be at least 20 characters>

Left sketchup running and closed my laptop lid. Came back two hours later, opened the lid and found sketchup had crashed. Sent in the error report. checked with task manager and found… (see above).

Bug is reproducible…

Best regards,

Jim,

It is typical that Windows file locks remain in place for a time ater an application has crashed. Is the sketchup.exe process still running in Task Manager?

In my experiance, the 3D functions of display drivers often do not like the computer to sleep or hibernate, so I generally do not try to leave SketchUp or CAD applications running if the computer is to sleep.

Hi Anssi,

Regarding your second paragraph…

You are correct - the display driver crashed when I closed the lid.

When I opened task manager there were three copies of COM surrogate running. Within seconds after opening task manager two of the copies went away, leaving one copy running. SU files were still locked. I killed the remaining copy and SU files were now back to normal.

Later on SU crashed on its own without me closing the lid and SU ended up in the same file locked state.

Best regards,

Jim

Hi Tommy,

Has this issue been fixed yet? I like to use preview and don’t want to disable it.

Thanks

Could the problem be similar to the PDF preview issue? I manually modified a registry key, which worked for my PDF previews. Here’s the manual fix for PDF previews and the URL:

Open RegEdit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}

If it doesn’t exist then you may not have Adobe Reader installed in the first place. Or Adobe may have changed the way they install it. Or you may be on 32-bit Windows. Or you may be on 64-bit Windows but have run the 32-bit version of RegEdit.exe by mistake.

There should be an existing AppID value, incorrectly set to
{6d2b5079-2f0b-48dd-ab7f-97cec514d30b}

Change the AppID value to
{534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}

Fix URL:
http://www.pretentiousname.com/adobe_pdf_x64_fix/index.html

Heya Alataide,

Unfortunately, I don’t have any updates to share with regard to a fix – as opposed to a list of workarounds. But many thanks for getting this back up on my radar. I’ll ask around and see what the latest news is with regard to this issue.

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