Some Book Files Stays Locked...

[Aixtron]

Hi All,

I updated a Book, but after update why some files stays locked?

This is annoying while you have to update book multiple times, it does not update and you get error for File is Locked.

After updating a Book, you see below that EXP_Pre-Install_CH1.fm.lck and EXP_Pre-Install_Appendix-AA.fm.lck are locked.

Any comment on this matter will be great.

Thanks.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Do you still have the book open? That would explain the lock on it. I find sometimes that because the Update Book operation is silently opening & closing files, that it can be thrown off by document errors and fail to close the docs properly. One way around this is to use the Shift File command to open all docs in the book at once, then Update the book, then do a Shift Close all open docs.

[Aixtron]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the response. I will try your suggestion. But with many chapters and big files it puts strain on the Framemaker.

My understanding with latest FM12 (and above) is that:

• when you update a book it opens and closes all chapters in the background; you do not see it on Framemaker but you will see it in your File Manager (Windows Explorer)
• Therefore, after successful Book Update, Framemaker suppose to close all the documents in the File Manager and not lock it.

Just a thought.

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

Tell me about it - I've got a book of books with around 290 fm docs inside 60 some odd books - it really sucks the life out of my machine if I do the "open all" trick. I generally just close all books & docs, scan the folders where the content is stored looking for .lck files; kill them off, then open the book and Update. There's usually no errors reported at that point. Then I close the book and scan for .lck files again. Usually works fine - my content is located on a network drive, so some flakiness is to be expected in that scenario.

[Aixtron]

Thanks Jeff,

Appreciate your answer. I was hoping if people have experience the same thing; I suppose this must be very common.

Once again, thank you.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You don't usually experience any locked files if your content is local; network locations can introduce some latency into the process that can leave files locked.