Word 2013 holds onto file after exit

I regularly download a file via FTP as file yyy.doc on my hard drive. As soon as the transfer completes, I double-click on the file in Windows Explorer to open it in Word 2013. (I've got it configured to prompt me for "Convert File -- from Plain Text" during the open.) I then run some VBE macros to format the file, saving it in Word 2013 format but retaining the original .doc extension.

Every now and then I hit a problem when I X-out of that document while I still have other Word docs open. I don't know if the issue is related to changes I may have made to the doc that I choose to discard on exit. But after what appears to be a clean exit, I re-run the FTP, downloading into the same file, yyy.doc. The FTP gets an error because the file is apparently still in use. Today several FTP's in a row failed due to this, then a short time later it worked. Other times I found that if I closed all the other Word docs, the FTP would start working successfully, but that may just be a timing thing, and eventually it might have worked even if I didn't close those other documents.

After getting the error from FTP, if I try to delete file yyy.doc, which still shows up in Windows Explorer, it tells me that the delete can't be performed because the file is still in use by Word.

I'm guessing this has to do with the "Welcome back" feature. (Incidentally, often it welcomes me back to my document after I have overlaid the previous version completely via FTP. How would that ever work?) Does anybody have any thoughts as to why the file remains in use by Word? Any way for me to change the current beh

March 12th, 2015 4:28pm

Hi Rich,

Thanks for sharing the issue. Could you please share the complete error message here, so it will be easy for us to investigate the issue?

How many users are affected by this issue? Does this only happens with Word 2013?

Based on your problem description, I'm thinking it might be due to the temporary files created by Word 2013. When you open a file by using the FTP protocol, the file is first copied to the temp directory. Then, the file is opened from the temp directory.

Usually, when Word is shut down in a normal fashion, all temporary files are first closed and then deleted. But sometimes, the temporary files might be damaged which may cause the issue here. So, please try to clean your temporary files, then try again.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2015 2:58am

Today I downloaded yyy.doc via FTP, then ran my Word 2013 macros to format the file and save it, all as documented previously. Then I made two changes to the document, then X-d out of Word, telling it to discard my changes. As soon as that window closed, I ran a command prompt FTP, which failed:

ftp> get print0. yyy.doc
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for PRINT0.
> Replace Existing File with Temp File:I/O Error
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 1669118 bytes received in 6.63Seconds 251.75Kbytes/sec.
ftp>

I wait one minute, still in the same FTP window, and then it succeeds:

ftp> get print0. yyy.doc
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for PRINT0.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 1669118 bytes received in 3.00Seconds 557.30Kbytes/sec.
ftp>

The problem is not with the temp file, it's with Word's copy. It's obviously still in use (see my original post where a delete tells me the file is still in use by Word), so FTP can't copy the temp file to the real file.

>How many users are affected by this issue? Does this only happens with Word 2013?

This occurs on my laptop's C: drive, and I am the only one affected. Yes, this only happens with Word 2013. Never had any problems doing the exact same thing in Word 2010.

A better guess than I made in my original post is that the problem has to do with keeping the discarded changes available ("If you click "Don't Save", a recent copy of this file will be temporarily available.").

March 16th, 2015 3:29pm

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your feedback.

I noticed that you mentioned "ran my Word 2013 macros to format the file and save it". What if you open and save it directly without running the macro? Just give it a try and see if issue persists.

So actually the problem will go away after about one minute, I would suggest we try to run Process Monitor to track down the issue and see what's causing the delay (accessing the process).

If you would like us to help analyze the Process Monitor log, you can send the log file to this email account: ibsofc@microsoft.com and inform us here (the email subject should be the link of this thread).

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 17th, 2015 2:45am

Just wanted to say hi and check if there is anything that I can do for you on this problem.If so, please do not hesitate to let me know and I will be happy to help.

Best Regards,

Steve Fan

Forum Support

March 23rd, 2015 3:57am

Ethan,

I found that I was unable to duplicate the problem this morning after a reboot (having applied Office fixes) and only the programs involved running. However, this afternoon I found the problem was back, and it appears to only happen when I have another Word document open. Once it happened, I was able to reproduce it repeatedly. I also found, per your request, that the problem occurs even when I don't run my macros, but manually perform the same Word functions.

I have sent you an e-mail with a link to my pml file. I believe I started the monitor when I initially opened up the document (freshly downloaded via ftp), then made the modifications I need, saved it, made two more modifications, then told it to exit and discard changes. Then I tried the ftp download again, and it failed with the usual "> Replace Existing File with Temp File:I/O Error". Then I turned off the monitor. After several more failed attempts to download, one was finally successful.

- Rich

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 23rd, 2015 4:37pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics