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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 03, 2018
        Hi Sergei!

        Where can I get this option?

        Thanks !

        Claire
    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Aug 03, 2018

      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

      • Damien_Rosario's avatar
        Damien_Rosario
        Silver Contributor
        Aug 06, 2018

        Hi Deleted

         

        Great to hear that the co-authoring option in Excel Online has helped with the issue.

         

        I suspect not every business will have the latest Office build which may cause this sort of issue (e.g. we hold off on pushing updates until we test it to make sure that it doesn't break anything or opens security threats to our users).

         

        Play with the tech and see what works for you.

         

        Wishing you a very happy week ahead!

         

        Cheers

        Damien

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