ArcReader User Creating Lock Files

[Anonymous User]

I work in an environment with lots of ArcReader users accessing PMFs published to our network server. We use shapefiles, personal gdb and file gdb and imagery sources. We have recently upgraded everyone to Windows 7 and we are using Arc 10.2. The PMFs and all of the data is in one location separate from the data we edit in ArcMap on a daily basis. About once a week I want to update the data the PMFs see, but lock files are my nemesis.

In Windows Explore I can see the lock files on the personal gdb files (I am working after hours), but I cannot delete them, even if I own the lock. But the odd thing is that one of my ArcReader users is putting a lock on some of the files (not other ArcReader users ever creates a lock file) so this is quite confusing to me. The type of lock file is: Microsoft Office Access Record-Locking Information and is only on the personal gdb files.

Why is it that an ArcReader user can create one of these locks? And why is it that I cannot delete these locks?

Why is it that I am unable to delete these locks even if I am the owner? Should I be assuming that there is someone out there who is not closing out of ArcReader at the end of the day?

Is there a way to track what machines are touching the data so I can start to solve the problem. I need to be able to update data quickly and easily, which I could until we began the Windows7 and 10.2 upgrade.

Thanks for any thoughts.

[TomMagdaleno]

We have a similar workflow, but we don't use Personal Geodatabases and try to avoid shapefiles.  As far as the Access lock file it sounds like the user is opening it up as an Access database.  On our server we can see the username of who created the lock in windows explorer so I can see who needs to exit out of ArcReader.  But some lock files hang around and I have also had problems where I couldn't delete my lock.  But this has been a problem since ArcGIS 10.   You many want to setup something in windows task scheduler to update in the middle of the night.  I found it easier to make everything in modelbuilder instead of python.  So I put ArcCatalog on the server and had a batch file run it so I only had to change the name of the model it was pointing to.  If lock files keep getting in the way you may want to reboot the server in the middle of the night to clear them out.

[Anonymous User]

I apologize for not seeing your response earlier and saying thanks. We have tried several options with no luck, except the rebooting of the server. I find this to be obnoxious and something that should not be needed since lock files are supposed to go away when the user closes out of the software (especially as an ArcReader user). And I, with full administrative rights, should be able to delete those lock files anyway if the user is no longer logged in - especially when the machine is turned off!

None of the other users of our data ever opens the dbf in Access so that is definitely not the issue. We are very basic users. The maps are just created and published with no models are used. We did not begin to experience this issue until we upgraded to Windows 7. I have spent a lot of time with ESRI tech support with no luck so far so the work around is rebooting the server or having IT kill all of the lock files with their rights in the middle of the night.

Thanks for your ideas.

[TomMagdaleno]

Hi Sandy,

  Did you ever resolve this?  I have found Truncate and Append usually work on locked geodatabases.

[DavidForbuss1]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem.  I don't understand why ArcReader is "reading" the original source gdb after a data folder has already been created when I published the pmf file.  I can take the .pmf file along with the data folder and copy just those items to an off network laptop and the map opens just fine.  Why is ArcReader placing locks on the source gdb when it is seemingly not using it?

You can usually see the computer network ID in the lock file name, so that's how I go about tracking which user is currently accessing the data: