Personal settings locked

[tonynorwalk]

I have a MacBookPro running OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) on which I have 2 user accounts. I have OO v 3.1.1 installed on both accounts. On my account (A) it works fine but when I switch to my wife's account (B) it gives the following error message ...

Either another instance of OpenOffice.org is accessing your personal settings or your personal settings are locked.
Simultaneous access can lead to inconsistencies in your personal settings. Before continuing, you should make sure user 'B" closes OpenOffice.org on host MacBookPro.local
Do you really want to continue?

Continuing crashes the machine. The message doesn't make sense as it is user B that I am trying to open.
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling OO but the same message appears. I make sure that no documents are open in my (A) log in and that OO is not running but still get the same message. I do not know what locked personal settings are being referred to (Mac OSX, OO or individual document?).
Logic tells me that as it recurs despite reinstalling the software it must be something outside the OO software.
Can anyone shed some light on how to solve this ? What are the locked personal settings it refers to?

Many thanks, Tony

[Villeroy]

There is a user-specific directory where OOo stores all personal settings, templates, word lists, spellcheck lists, macros and more.
If you copied your own profile into the folder of your wife, your wife has no write access until you change the ownership.
Reset (move) the whole thing as advised in [Tutorial] The OOo user profile

[TheGurkha]

Uninstalling OOo does not remove the user profile (so that a new installtion of OOo can make use of it). But if it gets messed up that's a problem - you have to remove it by hand.

[peppermint_tea]

I have the same problem, but am the only user. Only been using OO a week or so. I have already browsed other posts on this error message and can't find anything of help. It says remove 'quickstarter' but I have no idea where to find that on a Mac (I'm a new Mac user). Can anyone tell me what I can do? Very grateful!

[lgusaas]

There is a user-specific directory where OOo stores all personal settings, templates, word lists, spellcheck lists, macros and more.
If you copied your own profile into the folder of your wife, your wife has no write access until you change the ownership.
Reset (move) the whole thing as advised in [Tutorial] The OOo user profile

You can also check for a '.lock' file in your profile. However, it is a hidden file and you will need a third party program such as "TinkerTool" to enable viewing them in finder.

[lgusaas]

I have the same problem, but am the only user.

Then it is not necessarily the same cause since the OP had multiple users. Give details and any error messages you get.

I have already browsed other posts on this error message and can't find anything of help. It says remove 'quickstarter' but I have no idea where to find that on a Mac (I'm a new Mac user).

There is not a quickstarter on Macs.

[peppermint_tea]

Hi Igusaas, thanks for your reply. The error message when I try to open OO is:

Either another instance of OpenOffice.org is accessing your personal settings or your personal settings are locked.
Simultaneous access can lead to inconsistencies in your personal settings. Before continuing, you should ensure user *my name* closes OpenOffice.org on host *ip address/ISP address*. Do you really want to continue?

[lgusaas]

Hi Igusaas, thanks for your reply. The error message when I try to open OO is:

Either another instance of OpenOffice.org is accessing your personal settings or your personal settings are locked.
Simultaneous access can lead to inconsistencies in your personal settings. Before continuing, you should ensure user *my name* closes OpenOffice.org on host *ip address/ISP address*. Do you really want to continue?

Follow instructions about resetting profile or finding .lock file given earlier in this thread.

[georgia]

(iMac OSX10.4.1 user) I am having the same problem. Have read these posts but cannot solve. I don't find locked file when I follow the instructions. I did label my OO as OO.old as insructed but that didn't help. I even downloaded a new version for my Power Mac and that doesn't help either.
Any suggestions welcome.

[kabing]

You might give NeoOffice and see if that works better for you. It is an independent port/fork of OpenOffice.org, adapted specifically for Macs.

[georgia]

I seemed to have solved the problem but am not sure why. I downloaded a newer version and when the same error message came up, I checked "Continue". Since then, documents are opening without a problem.
I see the message about NeoOffice but don't know what that is. The version I downloaded is 3.2 for Power Macs.
Thanks for the response.

[kabing]

I'm glad you got it working!

NeoOffice is an independant project that takes the (open source) OpenOffice.org code and adapts it for the Mac OS. It was started back before OpenOffice.org had a Mac-native option. It works almost identically to OpenOffice.org, but there are occasional small differences. Sometimes when OpenOffice.org isn't working well on a Mac, NeoOffice will work better. But if you got OpenOffice.org to work for you, there's no reason to try NeoOffice.

kabing

[georgia]

Thanks, kabing. If I have more problems, I may try that. I've been using OO for a number of years.....through several upgrades but don't remember seeing NeoOffice on the download page.
For some reason, I began getting the "spinning beachball" when I upgraded last time (not this one). Not sure what that is about and since I haven't been able to solve, I just live with it.
Thanks again.
Georgia

[kabing]

You don't see NeoOffice on the download page because it's a separate project. It can be downloaded from neooffice.org. I say that mostly for others who read the thread. Given that OOo is working for you, there's no reason to switch.

[DanielDG]

The same thing happened to me after I change my user name. I deleted a file called ~.lock from the OpenOffice user folder and my personal settings were not locked anymore.