Hi,
I have a problem with folders staying locked that is starting to drive me nuts. For some reason xplorer2 locks folders and I can't then delete them. I'm not 100% sure but I think this problem has only occurred for me when using the 1.7.* version of xplorer2. I don't think it happened while I was using any 1.6.* version.
What seems to be happening is that if I navigate into a folder and double click to open any sort of file, after I've closed it then navigated back up to the parent directory, if I try to delete the folder where the file in question resided I get an "in use" type message and told that it can't be deleted. Yet I can navigate back into the folder and delete the file itself. I can't always duplicate this, but it happens very frequently, and I'm referring to navigating in and out within a single tab.
It also seems that if I navigate into another folder and open a file there, when I return to the parent directory the original folder I was trying to delete is no longer locked, as though xplorer2 has moved onto the next folder.
I'm 100% sure it's xplorer2 locking the folders as I've installed "Unlocker" which will show via a right click menu which program has locked a file/folder and then unlock it for you if you desire. While it's a handy utility, having to use it at least 50% of the time I want to delete a folder gets a little tedious.
Is there anything I could be missing/doing to stop this locking from happening, or to have xplorer2 unlock them as, I assume, it should?
Thanks,
and thanks for a great program... I couldn't imagine the idea of returning to Windows Explorer.
Darren
xplorer2 lite locking folders
Moderators: fgagnon, nikos, Site Mods
@ doesn't happen every time -
It may be a function of which app is used to open the file, and whether x2 recognizes its closure, and/or a latency or interaction with a default feature of x2.
Try the suggestion in FAQ-B3 to see if it helps.
It may be a function of which app is used to open the file, and whether x2 recognizes its closure, and/or a latency or interaction with a default feature of x2.
Try the suggestion in FAQ-B3 to see if it helps.
Unfortunately I already have that option ticked.fgagnon wrote:@ doesn't happen every time -
It may be a function of which app is used to open the file, and whether x2 recognizes its closure, and/or a latency or interaction with a default feature of x2.
Try the suggestion in FAQ-B3 to see if it helps.
And I don't think it's a latency as such. Sometimes I can wonder off and read a web page, then come back and the folder is still locked. The only program that Unlocker sees as locking the folders is xplorer2. Thinking about it, it's more likely to happen with text files, which I open with Metapad, but then maybe I just look at more text files than any other file type before trying to delete the folder they're in......
Just out of curiosity though, the way I set up xplorer2 on the two computers here (I have the same problem on both) was by saving it's settings to a reg file on the old computer, then adding it to the registry on these ones. It all seemed to work perfectly, but nothing in that process could be causing a setting, such as the one you mentioned, not to be "set" could it?
Thanks.
Thanks for the reply anyway....fgagnon wrote:Importing the old .reg file should be OK.
If the "Don't lock browsed folder" box in Tools | Options | Advanced, shows as being checked, then that *should* take care if the situation.
I'm stumped. :?
I've tried to do a bit of experimenting to see if I can find a way to replicate this problem regularly somehow, but so far I'm not having any luck. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.
The odd thing is that I have 3 PCs here all recently reformatted with XP SP3 and they all have the same folder locking problem. I tried to be patient with a folder the other day... left it when it wouldn't delete and then tried again 5 minutes later and it was unlocked... yet I hadn't done any more navigating in and out of folders with xplorer2. I just let it sit there.
I don't know if the numbers mean anything to you (they mean nothing to me) but here's an example of what the Unlocker window looks like when I check to see what's stopping me from deleting a folder (see picture at the end of the post).
I'm wondering if it's possible Unlocker itself has something to do with it as it's appearing in it's own list of processes locking the folder, although I can't recall if that has always been the case.
It runs from the right click menu, so maybe it's "active" in some way even if I don't use it, so to speak. I think I upgraded Unlocker to the latest version prior to my reformatting, and I can't remember how the previous version behaved exactly.... but tomorrow I'll uninstall Unlocker and see what happens.
Maybe this is something to do with it....
If I open a text file (I use Metapad) via Windows Explorer, Metapad locks the folder even though it doesn't lock the file. However when I open a text file, leave it open and then navigate back up a directory with Windows Explorer, Unlocker tells me that Metapad is the only process locking the folder, and as soon as I close Metapad the folder unlocks.
When I do the same thing using Xplorer2, Unlocker tells me that Metapad, xplorer2 and Unlocker are all locking processes, and when I close Metapad and run locker again, Metapad has been removed from the list while xplorer2 and Unlocker remain as processes locking the folder.
I don't understand why there's a difference and why they're keeping it locked, but I assume it's got to be a part of the problem.
Could any program, which adds right click menus to Explorer, cause xplorer2 to lock a folder even though the option to "not lock browsed folders" has been ticked? And if that's possible, would it also be possible that it's xplorer2 which appears as the locking process rather than the guilty program itself?
Thanks,
Darren
Thanks, but I in fact did the whole "search thing" before starting this thread.nikos wrote:i have answered this question many times, search the forum for "don't lock browsed folder"
I seem now to have rectified the problem however. I don't know if I'm missing something, or of for some reason later versions of xplorer2 work "backwards" compared to earlier versions, but....
To my way of thinking ticking the "don't lock browsed folder" option would stop folders from being locked while you're viewing their contents. So while viewing a folder in one pane it can still be deleted via another. In that respect the setting makes no difference at all either way for me. I can still delete the folder.
Assuming though that this setting refers to the locking of folders from which files have been opened, it works in exactly the opposite manner to what I expected. With the option ticked, the xplorer2 locks the folder, with it unticked, it doesn't
So.... ticking the "don't lock browsed folder" option seems to be what's caused the problem for me, unticking it causes xplorer2 to stop locking the folders which now behave in the same way as they would while using Windows Explorer.
In my opinion, if this problem is causing so many questions to be asked, maybe it's interface isn't as intuitive as it could be?
Thanks for your help.... and for xplorer2. I couldn't imagine life without it.
Darren
Yeah, I mentioned in my first post that it seems to be a way around the problem, although it's a tad more frustrating then simply using Unlocker, which doesn't require as much mouse clicking.nikos wrote:the simple workaround is to start another document, any document, from another folder, and the originally locked folder will be unlocked
But along the subject of the "don't lock browsed folder" option, am I seriously missing something or does checking/unchecking the option have exactly the opposite effect to the one expected?
It's just that the way checking/unchecking it works for me, the option should read "lock browsed folder", without the "don't".
I'm wondering if that's the reason why this question pops up so often.
Thanks again,
Darren