Shared files
Stop people overwriting each other's work
Someone spends an afternoon on a spreadsheet, saves it, and the version on the shared drive is yesterday's. Or Word announces the document is locked for editing by "another user" and will not say which one, so the whole office plays a guessing game over who has it open. Everyone has a workaround by now — copy it to the desktop, edit there, copy it back — and that workaround is exactly what destroys the other person's afternoon.
Why the usual answers don't hold
Windows will not tell you who
The message is literally "locked for editing by another user". On a domain it sometimes names them; on a small-office share it very often does not, because the lock owner is recorded in a hidden temporary file next to the document rather than in anything Windows will show you.
The official advice is to work around it
Delete the hidden file whose name starts with a tilde. Wait for the server to release the lock. Copy the file somewhere local, edit it, and copy it back. That last one is not a fix — it is a recipe for two divergent copies and a silent overwrite when the second person saves.
Nothing warns the second person early enough
You find out the file is taken after you have opened it, and sometimes only after you have made changes. By then the choice is to discard your work or overwrite theirs.
How Oxolan handles it
The lock has a name on it
When someone opens a shared file through Oxolan, the other machines mark it as held and show who is holding it — a device name rather than "another user". That alone ends most of the guessing.
The second person is warned before they start
If a colleague already has the file open, Oxolan tells you who has it at the moment you try to open it, rather than after you have made an hour of changes you cannot save.
Or take a copy on purpose
When you would rather not wait, Oxolan can hand you your own copy, saved back alongside the original and clearly marked as edited by you. Two people, two files, nothing silently replaced, and a human decision about which one wins.
Honest about what this is
This is checkout-style coordination — one editor at a time, with the holder named — not a database-grade lock manager. It removes the everyday collisions and the guessing. It is not a guarantee, and the FAQ below says exactly where it stops.
Your options, honestly
Including the free ones. If one of them fits you better, use it.
| Option | Honest read |
|---|---|
| A Windows shared folder | Free and built in. Locks exist but frequently will not name the holder, and nothing stops the person at the host machine from writing anyway. |
| Copy it to your desktop and back | The most common office workaround and the direct cause of most overwrites. Two divergent copies, and the loser is whoever saves first. |
| OneDrive / SharePoint co-authoring | Genuinely good for Office documents edited simultaneously, if you are willing to keep the files in the cloud and everyone is on a recent Microsoft 365 build. No help for CAD, RAW, video projects or anything Office cannot open. |
| LocalSend and other send-to-device tools | Excellent at sending a file to someone. They hold no shared state at all, so they cannot tell you a file is in use — this is not the problem they exist to solve. |
| Oxolan | Paid, Windows and macOS. Names who holds a file, warns the second person at open time, and offers a copy-instead-of-wait mode. Checkout-style coordination, not a guarantee — see the FAQ. |
Getting started, in 3 steps
- 1
Install Oxolan on the machines that share the working files.
- 2
Open a shared file from a colleague's machine as usual.
- 3
Everyone else now sees it held, and by whom, until you close it.
One flat price for the whole office
From $149/yr for up to 5 machines — every plan is the full app. See pricing. Free 14-day trial, no card required.
Download Oxolan — free trialFrequently asked questions
Does this fix the "locked for editing by another user" message in Word or Excel?
It does not repair Windows file sharing — it replaces the job you were using it for. That message comes from the SMB share, and Oxolan does not use SMB between machines. Files you work on through Oxolan get its own locking, which names the holder instead of hiding them.
Can two people edit the same file at the same time?
No, and we would rather be plain about that than oversell it. Oxolan is checkout-based: one editor at a time, with everyone else able to see who that is. If you need genuine simultaneous editing of Office documents, Microsoft 365 co-authoring does that properly and Oxolan does not replace it.
What happens if someone leaves a file open and goes home?
You can take a copy instead of waiting — it saves back next to the original, marked as edited by you, so nothing is lost and a person decides which version wins. A held file is also released automatically once the app sees it closed, so a forgotten checkout does not block the team indefinitely.
Where does this stop working?
Worth knowing before you rely on it. Coordination is best-effort, not a guarantee: if a machine loses power or drops off the network mid-edit, its claim can take a while to clear. Detecting that an application has really finished with a file is a judgement call — editors like Photoshop save by writing a new file and renaming it — so Oxolan waits a short grace period before treating a file as free. And every machine involved needs a current build; an older one will not publish or honour a claim at all. If your work genuinely cannot tolerate two people ever touching one file, use a system with real check-in/check-out such as a document management system or version control. Oxolan removes the everyday collisions in a small office; it is not a substitute for that.
Does it work for files Office cannot open?
Yes. The locking is on the file, not the application, so it applies to CAD drawings, RAW photos, video project files and anything else your team keeps in a shared folder.
Do we have to move everything off our shared drive?
Only the working files that people actually collide on. Plenty of offices keep the old share for archives and move the live project folder to Oxolan.