Word Web App cannot open this document for editing because it is currently being edited by another user.

Question

TL;DR Whatever I do, all the files I save online are all locked for a few hours and cannot be edited. I can read them and delete them from the browser, but editing is locked even after shutting down the computer.

I’ve had this problem from day 1. I use MS Word 2010 to save a file to my online Hotmail account and then, no matter what I do, if I try to edit that document, I get that dreaded pop-up:

“Word Web App cannot open this document for editing because it is currently being edited by another user.”

The file is then blocked for hours. I can shut down my home computer, show up at work an hour later, fire up IE8 and I’ll get the pop-up.

If I close word after saving the file and try to re-open it within a few minutes or a couple of hours, (from MS-Word), the program tell me it’s being edited by another user (which is impossible.)

It does not matter if I’m using IE8, Firefox 3.6 or Chrome 5.

Anyone else having this problem? I’d love to get a solution for this. It’s been plaguing me for months. I’d like to be able to edit a file instead of having to copy and paste its content into a new file, which is the work-around I’m using.

Thanks, folks!

Windows 7, all updates, MS Word 2010, IE8 or Firefox 3.6.