[Solved] Changed name of laptop: "simultaneous access" error

[Hagar Delest]

As the title says....I was required to change my laptop name for a Zoom meeting today.

After this, I tried to open up some Open Office files.....they are giving me the message about:

Either another instance of OpenOffice is accessing your personal settings or your personal setting are locked.

Simultaneous access can lead to inconsistencies in your personal settings....Before continuing, you should make sure(new laptop name) closes Open Office on (new laptop name)

I would just change it back to what it was named before this morning....but have no idea what it was....think was a default Windows name.....DESKTOP then digits and a dash and more.

I did a system restore to 12/1 and that did not help. Thought that was odd. Maybe it doesn't affect device name, etc.

Really would appreciate help and am REALLY hoping this isn't a major ordeal. I've already spent more time than I want to on this.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Go to the AOO user profile and delete the lock file at its root, see [Tutorial] The OpenOffice User Profile.
It's a .lock file in the /4 folder. You may have to make the hidden files displayed in your file explorer.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the *EDIT button if your issue has been fixed.

[Bill]

This probably happened because AOO was open when the computer was renamed and not closed when the computer was restarted. The user name and computer name are added to the lock file when AOO is opened. The error message appears when there is a mismatch between the names in the lock file and the current names.

[Villeroy]

Rename the computer back to the old name.
Save and close all your work. This should happen without error message now.

[MrProgrammer]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Either another instance of OpenOffice is accessing your personal settings or your personal setting are locked.

I think you did not provide us the full message. You are then asked "Do you really want to continue?", correct? If so, simply indicate that you do want to continue and the problem will be solved. OpenOffice wants to verify that there are not two people (or two computers) using the same file concurrently. Since there are not — you are only one person on a single computer — it is safe to let OpenOffice continue. The product thinks there are two different computers because you changed its name, but there are not.

You don't need to try to find and remove a lock file. That procedure would work, but it is not needed in this situation.

I was required to change my laptop name for a Zoom meeting today.

You should not make any changes to your computer's configuration while OpenOffice is running. The problem would not have occurred if you had closed all documents and stopped OpenOffice before making that change. I realize this doesn't help with your current problem, but could save you trouble in the future. In particular, you should never allow Windows to install updates while OpenOffice is running. This will very likely destroy any documents you have open, as hundreds in this forum have reported. If Windows says it is going to install updates, you should immediately close anything you have open. Close the document even if you are just browing it and have made no changes. Do not use OpenOffice again until Windows is done updating.

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit button and add [Solved] to the start of the subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

[billybgame]

Thanks for the replies and knowledge...yes, I am sure I had the docs open when I renamed the laptop.

However, before even reading your replies, I did indeed answer "Yes, I wanted to proceed" Seems situation was resolved.

Though I did also remove the "lock" files previously also.

Bill