Hello,I came here because I find something wrong with Excel 2016 and Excel Online.It's impossible to make changes in Excel 2016 and Excel online at the same time.When one of the files is open in Excel Online,I got an error message in Excel 2016. We need to close the file and after that it's ok.Do you know why? Because this problem is just for Excel, it works well on Powerpoint and Word.Thanks!Claire

Hi Claire In my understanding, this is by design. You cannot co-author documents across Excel 2016 app and Excel Online at the same time, it has to be one or the other app. I would suggest the following advice to avoid co-authoring issues by using Excel Online if you are collaborating in real-time with other users, and Excel 2016 app when you need more features (Excel Online is limited in features) to update the workbook with. Hope that helps! CheersDamien

Damien, why not? Here is the same file which I'm editing simultaneously in Excel Online and Excel 2016

Hi ! SergeiBaklan thanks for your answers!Damien_Rosario I got the same issues that you, I tried with my co-worker and co-authoring works well on Excel Online, but on Excel 2016 it works for the first person on the document.But thank you for your digging, it helped me to understand the issue! I think the solution is to co-authoring on Excel online and be careful not to have the document open in multiple places.Claire

Hi Damien_Rosario, And what is Versioning setting for you document library? If "Yes" most probably the file will be locked, you can't check out already checked-out file. Will play with it some later.

SPO document library, settings gear on top right->Library settings->Versioning Settings->Require Check Out at the bottom But I'm not sure that's the reason, Excel shall ask for checkin/checkout, not to lock the file

Excel error | Microsoft Community Hub

13 Replies

Damien_Rosario
Silver Contributor
Aug 02, 2018
Hi Claire

In my understanding, this is by design. You cannot co-author documents across Excel 2016 app and Excel Online at the same time, it has to be one or the other app.

I would suggest the following advice to avoid co-authoring issues by using Excel Online if you are collaborating in real-time with other users, and Excel 2016 app when you need more features (Excel Online is limited in features) to update the workbook with.

Hope that helps!

Cheers
Damien
- SergeiBaklan
  MVP
  Aug 02, 2018
  Damien, why not?
  
  Here is the same file which I'm editing simultaneously in Excel Online and Excel 2016
  - Damien_Rosario
    Silver Contributor
    Aug 03, 2018
    Hi SergeiBaklan
    
    Thanks for the info buddy, I'm experiencing something different at my workplace (see image below).
    
    I'm editing in Excel 2016 app but can't do it from Teams or Excel Online.
    
    I did a bit of digging and am wondering whether I have a version mismatch which is preventing co-authoring across these different apps at the same time? If I co-author in Excel Online with others, no issue. If I co-author in Excel 2016 there's no issue. We only get the issue when we cross apps.
    
    Might have to do some more digging on this.
    
    Deleted it may be that you are experiencing a similar issue to me. I do suggest giving the Excel Online option a go, and/or try co-authoring in Excel 2016 with other people to see if that works too.
    
    In terms of file locked, per the image above, I find it happens when another app has edit rights and locks me out. Might be worth checking if the file is opened by an app or by another user. I find sometimes people leave the doc open and forget to close it.
    
    Just my two cents. I really do hope that something we're saying here helps to find a way forward.
    
    Best wishes Claire and please do let us know if the Excel Online option helps?
    
    Cheers
    Damien
- Deleted
  Aug 02, 2018
  Hi Damien!
  
  Thanks for your answer!
  I will do that with my co-workers, but it also does that when I'm alone on the file, do you know why?
  
  Claire
  - SergeiBaklan
    MVP
    Aug 02, 2018
    Claire,
    
    It's hard to say. I've seen few times error like this, Excel says the file is locked by yourself but actually it's opened by another person, as I remember in Excel 2013. I guess something was wrong with SharePoint caches. But that's quite seldom.
    
    If you have that permanently and you know for sure nobody else is working with file - when have no guess
SergeiBaklan
MVP
Aug 01, 2018
Hi Claire,

In general they work together. Which error do you have?
- Deleted
  Aug 02, 2018
  Hi Sergei!
  When I open my file I got an error message who says that the file is locked by the person who work on it.
  It's in french but this is the error message:

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Excel error

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