"open in another app" error

Question

What does this incorrect error message mean? Definitely isn't open anywhere-I shut down excel but still get this and can't open a file.

Answer 1

The issue I faced was trying to open a cloud OneDrive file hosted on SharePoint, accessed through a OneDrive Folder shortcut via my file explorer after my desktop power automate flow FAILED during testing. The file, in my case a .xlsx, turned into a Background process.

The solution that worked for me was opening up Task Manager > going to 'Background processes' > Locate and end task on the Excel process(es).

Answer 2

The "open in another app" error message usually appears when Excel thinks that the file you are trying to open is already open in another program or application. However, this error message can sometimes be incorrect and the file may not actually be open in another app.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Restart your computer and try opening the file again.
2. Check if the file is saved in a shared location or network drive. If so, make sure that no one else is currently using the file.

Answer 3

It's a shared file stored in Sharepoint and this just shouldn't happen. Instead of asking a paying customer to "restart their computer", how about Msft fix this?

Answer 4

You may let your SharePoint admin to kick user out of that file.