Excel online business connector locks file and stops subsequent processes

[lreinhard7]

Hi, 

When using the excel online business task in a flow, the link to the excel file seems to lock it. 

That is, in related flow steps that refer to the same excel document, I receive the error message

"The file is currently checked out or locked for editing by another user."

... and cannot proceed with this task as an error is triggered. 

Is there any way how to overcome this locking issue?

Best regards, 

Ludwig

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @lreinhard7,

Could you please share a screenshot of your flow's configuration?

The error message told that the Excel file is currently checked out or locked for editing by another user. There is no direct way to overcome this issue in Microsoft Flow currently, you could not complete your task within your flow until the another user closes the editing Excel file.

In addition, you could consider take a try to configure Run after action for the error step (the action where the error occurs) within your flow. I have made a test on my side and please take a try with the following workaround:

Note: I assume that the error may occur in the "Add a row into a table" action, you could configure a Run after action under the "Add a row into a table" action, if the "Add a row into a table" action failed, send a failure email notification to yourself.

More details about configuring a Run after action in Microsoft Flow, please check the following article:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/error-handling/

Best regards,

Kris

[lreinhard7 · Accepted solution]

Hello Kris,

Many thanks for your response and the idea provided.

I tested something similar but noticed that the file is still locked and prevents me updating the data.

So, I modified my flow and created two additional steps

Step 1: Updates the lines in a template and Step 2: retrieves the rows via a get lines action.

Because I still experiences locks of my files I did something like this:

That is basically a loop that tries to update my file multiple times until it succeeds. In my tests I noticed that it took me up to 13x before the file was unlocked and the data were updated. But finally everything worked out fine ... but it costed me a lot of sweat and tears

Many thanks for you feedback and support!

Much appreciated.

Best regards,

Ludwig

[DataViz]

I implimented this but it timesout before the file is unlocked. Is there anyway to force an unlock?

[nickduxfield]

m currently trying to implement this very logical and simple FLow to update the content of the file. This is the only hurdle and Configure run after doesnt exist directly after action.