FM files unaccessible on file server [RESOLVED]

[Jakob Fix]

[this didn't get through the first time around ...]

Hi everybody,

I thought I owe it to the list (and to the archive) to report our
investigation and resolution of the problem we've encountered.

Problem: Files were inaccessible on a central file server for a random
period of time, a message about the user not having access to this
file was displayed in a dialog box.

Resolution: Looking on the server's Computer Management console,
System Tools, Shared Folders, Open Files list, we noticed that the
inaccessible files were always "accessed by" another user than the
actual person working on the files.  The open mode was "no access".
We then concentrated on this person's machine and found that she had
Windows Search activated and the network share containing the
incriminated files had been added to the list of locations that should
be indexed ... Obviously, whenever one of FrameMaker's lck and fm
files was modified, Windows Search grabbed it and put a lock onto it
in order to be able to index it properly. This in turn made it
impossible for FrameMaker to correctly save the file.  Removing the
network share from the list of indexed locations, resolved our problem
of inaccessible files.

Recommendation: don't use Windows Search (or other services that lock
files) on directories that contain FrameMaker files, or at least
explicitly exclude fm and lck files.

We didn't have any complains since we made the change described above.
 Hope this helps the few people who encountered the same problems as
we did.

cheers,
Jakob.



On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 09:48, Jakob Fix <jakob.fix at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> we have intermittent problems with access to FM files stored on a
> central file server (running Windows 2003 Server). When trying to open
> a document, users get a FrameMaker popup like this:
>
> You do not have read access to \\server\path\to\file.fm.
>
> Investigating directly on the server, I found that in the Computer
> Management console, System Tools, Shared Folders, Open Files, one of
> the listed files is of the form \\server\path\to\file.fm.8AD (note the
> file extension which seems to indicate a temporary file?), where the
> "Open Mode" is "no access". This particular file is not shown in the
> Windows Explorer.
>
> I have asked our IT department for help, but I wonder if people on
> this list may have had similar problems and can advise.  Usually, when
> IT finally looks at the problem, the file has become accessible again
> ...
>
> We're currently using FrameMaker 8.
>
> Thanks for any and all help.
>
> cheers,
> Jakob.
>