Permission issues with Word and Excel files on my iMac from Windows XP

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Level 1

51 points

Permission issues with Word and Excel files on my iMac from Windows XP

When I change excel files sitting on my iMac (OSX 10.5.6) from my Windows XP SP2 machine across my LAN, I'm presented with a dialog with the message 'Excel cannot access <filename>. The document may be read-only or encrypted'. When I respond to this msg, I get another one 'The document was saved successfully, but Excel cannot re-open it because of a sharing violation. Please close the document and try to open it again.'

When I then re-open the file, I get the original messages again and then another 'Cannot access <filename>'.

Opening, changing and then saving a Word doc results in the following msg: "Word cannot complete the sae due to a file permission error. (<path/filename>)". This is followed by a dialog asking "Do you want to retry the save?". Saying Yes results in the Save As... dialog.

Opening files from the same Mac folder with other applications (e.g., PowerPoint) on the Windows machine works just fine. So, this seems to be a problem limited to Word and Excel.

The iMac folder containing the files have 'Read & Write' privileges set for me and everyone.

What's going on? Any ideas how/what to change so that I can simply open my mac-based files from Windows as if they were local (like I used to)?

TIA,
David

Dual Core iMac 20" (2Gb RAM), iPod Classic 80Gb, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 5, 2009 12:39 PM

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Answer 1

drschwartz Author

Level 1

51 points

May 8, 2009 2:24 PM in response to drschwartz

Is there really no one out there with any ideas about what might be going on?

Help PLEASE!

David

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Answer 2

May 8, 2009 4:08 PM in response to drschwartz

Are the Word/Excel files on the Mac or on the Windows machine? Can you make a new file with Text Edit and store it in that folder?

AK

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Answer 3

drschwartz Author

Level 1

51 points

May 8, 2009 4:12 PM in response to Austin Kinsella1

The files are on the Mac and edited from Windows XP over my LAN. Saved a .rtf file to the folder without problem. Not sure I mentioned this in my original post but it only seems to be Excel and Word. PowerPoint, for example, works just fine.

Thanks,
David

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Answer 4

dechamp

Level 4

3,495 points

May 8, 2009 4:17 PM in response to drschwartz

I know you said the folder the files are in is read/write but what are the permissions on the actual files themselves?

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Answer 5

drschwartz Author

Level 1

51 points

May 8, 2009 4:29 PM in response to dechamp

Well, looking at a random excel file in the folder, the permissions are as follows:

david (me) - Read & Write
staff - No Access
everyone - Read & Write

FYI, these permissions are no different from the PowerPoint (or any other) files in the same directory which can be modified and saved from XP with no problem.

David

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Answer 6

May 8, 2009 4:32 PM in response to drschwartz

Can you edit them on the Mac?

AK

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Answer 7

drschwartz Author

Level 1

51 points

May 8, 2009 4:57 PM in response to Austin Kinsella1

Yes, I can edit and save the files on the Mac. When I change them from XP, I can no longer open them from XP but I continue to be able to open them just fine on the Mac.

Interesting, eh? FWIW, I edited/saved these file types for many months from XP quite blissfully. The Mac OS is a recent install.

Thanks for your help,
David

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Answer 8

May 9, 2009 3:07 PM in response to drschwartz

Yes, I can edit and save the files on the Mac. When I change them from XP, I can no longer open them from XP but I continue to be able to open them just fine on the Mac.

You have an Excel file on your Mac Are you saying that you can edit the file once from your Windows machine, but not a second time?

AK

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Answer 9

drschwartz Author

Level 1

51 points

May 9, 2009 3:38 PM in response to Austin Kinsella1

Correct. I can edit it and save it ONCE from XP. From that point on, it can't be accessed from XP. Would images of the messages received be useful?

David

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Answer 10

May 16, 2009 3:05 PM in response to drschwartz

Oops, you slipped down the list a bit David ...

I have absolutely no idea what the problem is, but let's poke it a bit more. If you take one of the edited-on-XP files which can not be edited a 2nd time on XP, if you edit it on the Mac and save it, can it now be edited on XP?

Before and after editing a file for the first time on XP, open Terminal, change to the folder where the files are stored, and give the command ls -l filename and see is there any difference in the output.

AK

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Answer 11

drschwartz Author

Level 1

51 points

May 18, 2009 10:41 PM in response to Austin Kinsella1

If you take one of the edited-on-XP files which can not be edited a 2nd time on > XP, if you edit it on the Mac and save it, can it now be edited on XP?

No.

Before and after editing a file for the first time on XP, open Terminal, change
to the folder where the files are stored, and give the command ls -l filename
and see is there any difference in the output.

Sorry but I'm not a Terminal/Unix whiz. I'm not quite sure what you're asking me to do here.

Interestingly, I had an occasion to open a file that had been previously edited and saved on XP and then copied over to the Mac. When I went to save it, I got msg:

"Microsoft Excel cannot access the file 'Macintosh:Users:david:Documents:aDL:Open Client Initiative:New Requirements.' There are several possible reasons: <none of which was the case>"

I then saved it to the desktop with no problem. Does this perhaps provide any clues?

TIA,
David

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