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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Aug 01, 2018

Excel error

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 i...
excel
Excel Online
office 365
Damien_Rosario's avatar
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's avatar
    SergeiBaklan
    Diamond Contributor
    Aug 02, 2018

    Damien, why not?

     

    Here is the same file which I'm editing simultaneously in Excel Online and Excel 2016

    • Damien_Rosario's avatar
      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

       

      • SergeiBaklan's avatar
        SergeiBaklan
        Diamond Contributor
        Aug 03, 2018

        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.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    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's avatar
      SergeiBaklan
      Diamond Contributor
      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

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