Determine who opened an Office Access database in the exclusive mode

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Access for Microsoft 365, Access 2019, Access 2016, Access 2013, Access 2010, Microsoft Office Access 2007, Microsoft Office Access 2003

Original KB number:   824274

Note

This article applies only to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb/.accdb). Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

Summary

In a Microsoft Office Access environment, you may not be able to determine who opened an Access database in the exclusive mode. However, you can use the operating system utilities to determine who is using shared resources on your computer.

More Information

When you open an Access database, Access typically creates a lock file with the same name as the database file. This lock file has a .ldb/.laccdb extension, depending on what type of file is being opened (.mdb/.accdb). The .ldb/.laccdb file contains the information about who opened the Access database and about the computer that was used to open the Access database. However, when a user opens an Access database in the exclusive mode, Access does not create a lock file with a .ldb/.laccdb extension. Therefore, Access cannot use the .ldb/.laccdb file to determine who opened the database in the exclusive mode. If you try to open an Access database and another user has already opened the database in the exclusive mode, you receive one of the following error messages:

Could not use '<path>\<database.mdb>'; file already in use.

Could not use '<path>\<database.accdb>'; file already in use.

You do not receive any information about who opened the Microsoft Office Access database in the exclusive mode or about the computer that was used to open the Microsoft Office Access database in the exclusive mode.

You can use utility software, such as the Computer Management utility or the Server Manager utility, to determine who has an Access database open in the exclusive mode and to determine what computer has an Access database open in the exclusive mode.

For more information about how to view shared resources by using the Computer Management utility, follow these steps.

Note

Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

  1. Click Start.
  2. Click Help and Support.
  3. In the Search box, type Computer Management.
  4. Click Start Searching to view the topics.
  5. Search the Computer Management utility Help Index for "Viewing Information About Shared Resources."

If your computer runs the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, the Server Manager utility may be available as an executable file (Srvmgr.exe) in the Installation Drive: \WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder on your computer. If the Server Manager utility is not available, install the Server Manager utility and then monitor the concurrent users of the computer resources.

References

For more information about using the Server Manager utility to monitor the concurrent users of the computer resources, see the "Viewing: User Sessions" topic in the Server Manager Help Index.

For additional information about .ldb files, see the following article

Introduction to lock files (.laccdb and .ldb) in Access