Error using ID 20.5 - "This file is already open by another user or another application."

[abrown@espassociates]

Hello. Our marketing department is using the latest version of InDesign (20.5) and encountering an error that says "This file is already open by another use or another application." For some, this occurs as soon as the file opens, and for others, it occurs after the file has been opened for a while. The files that are encountering this issue are not ones that someone else would have open at the same time. Instead, they are files saved to a local drive and files that are opened from an INDT in CC library. So far, we have tried rolling back to ID 20.4.2 but are still encountering the issue.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi abrown@espassociates,

Thanks for sharing the details. Could you please confirm which Windows operating system you're working on and whether this happens with all files or only some? In the meantime, I'd suggest trying to reset InDesign preferences after creating a backup to rule out any corruption in settings. Ref: https://adobe.ly/474qVn2. Also, if you are using any sync services or antivirus software, kindly check once if temporarily pausing them changes the behavior. Try testing the issue in safe mode to isolate any third-party intervention: 

https://adobe.ly/42N1dks

Please give this a try and let me know your observations.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

[abrown@espassociates]

Hi, Abhishek.

Our team is using Windows 10 Pro and Windows 11 Pro. Only some of us are having the issue, but the issue occurs across these two Windows versions. It also happens with multiple files, not just one. Our affected team members have already tried the following without success - reverting to 20.4.2, saving the file in a previous version, resetting InDesign preferences, and exporting as an IDML and unlocking all layers. We will work with our IT department to test out the sync/antivirus and safe-mode options.

[abrown@espassociates]

Update: We appear to be having some success by exporting as an IDML and then saving as an INDT.

[Peter Spier]

Update: We appear to be having some success by exporting as an IDML and then saving as an INDT.

By abrown@espassociates

with the limited information here, I would guess that because the default behavior when opening a .indt file is to create a copy, there is no offending lock file yeat associated with the new copy, so no error.

Normally my guess would be that there is some soert of network lag that is causing  the failure of deletion of the .idlk files from some machines when the files are closed, nut you say they are stored on a local drive. Is that a drive that is installed on the machine wherre the error accurs, or a shared drive?

[abrown@espassociates]

We were getting the error when opening a new copy from the INDT file though - as well as from a file saved to a local drive. Thank you for asking about shared drives. Our computers all backup to OneDrive, so local files do still live on a shared drive even though they are saved to an individual pc.

[abrown@espassociates]

Also, we had a strange occurrence related to IDLK files. When one of our team members opened a copy from the INDT file in CC library, another team member who had originally uploaded the INDT file to CC library saw an IDLK open up on her computer at the same time. That was the IDLK that we deleted to see if it fixed the issue. However, it did not.

[Peter Spier]

I'm fairly certain this whole thing is related to file synching on OneDrive. I don't use remote backuup, but as I recall others who do have reported they needed to turn OFF synching for InDesign files.

[Peter Spier]

This is usually caused by a leftover .idlk lock file in the same folder as the .indd you are trying to open. If you see it, delete it.

[abrown@espassociates]

Thank you! We did find an IDLK and deleted it, but that didn't help the issue.