The following message came from the server

Does anyone know what causes this set of error messages. “The following message came from the server.” “You cannot use the file because it is being used by another process.” We have had this on all clients that try to run a report and when importing a fob. The message appear to be showing a blank file name. The Network Analyst looked at the server and couldn’t find any files external to Navision that might cause the problem. We resently moved to version 3.60, I don’t recall see the error before. [We will stop and start the service overnight to hopefully resolve.]

What is the value of “TempFilePath” for the users getting this message?

Hi John, first look for running backup jobs outside Navision. These Jobs can use “exclusive rights” for the files of your navision server. Then check if there is a client with direct use of navision database files. Importing FOB-Files from more than 1 terminal at time is a high risk.In my experience at 95% you got errors,like yours. Why ? In order to create the different keys for the tables navision uses temp-files. These files are not properly named and each instance which has to do such a job takes the same filenames. Result : An Error which says that the File ‘’ already exists.

Hans is right. This message usually occurs when someone opens the database directly instead of using the server name.

The stopping and starting of the service resolved the issue as expected. Paul, the “TempFilePath” file is the default setting <C:\Documents and Settings\sjohn.000\Local Settings\Temp>. Hans, I think I can discount direct access. Access to the DB is via a service, effectively you would need to be at the console to access directly. I mentioned importing the fob caused the same issue as trying to generate any report. I tried this after we started getting the problem to see if any other operations would fail.

Hi John, Just an FYI and further information about this error (even though it may not be applicable in your case). Basically if your Navision Database was being directly accessed, then you should work out why. Three common ways this can occur. (All the following would have been corrected by a server reboot). 1/ Someone was running Navision directly on the server, and connected directly to the database. This is very easy to do, and very common, and the reason why it is not recommended to run Navision on the server. 2/ The Database drive was shared, and someone directly connected through the network. 3/ You have software that backsup by copying the database, and the tape was full. In this case the database is locked untill the tape is changed. The error you indicate is VERY common, and these three cover 95% of the reasons. I suggest you track it down, so that you don;t loose time next time it happens. Also in the other 5% are things like ODBS or C/Front directly connecting to the database, and something as simple as copying the Database. Also in terms of your error, check using TASKMANAGER on your server, how many instances of SLAVE.EXE there are. There should always be one for each DISK you have. If there are more, then this could be the source of the problem, and check the log in permission for the Server Service.

Hi David, I’m happy to discount direct access to the database. When I looked on the forum this did indeed seem to be a common cause. However, the file name in these cases gave a good indication that that was the case. Remember in my posting: - a)The file name was missing. b)The only people that can access the server at this level are the system operators from a console. c)Only process that dealt with external files were affect i.e. reports and object imports. Moving on to the 5% of cases you mention ODBC(S?), C/Front or may be dataports are something I cannot discount by any means and are much more likely to have been the case. Thank you for the pointers, it is much appreciated.