Find out who is locking a file on a network share
PsFile does work on remote machines. If my login account already has access to the remote share, I can just enter:
psfile \\remote-share
(replace "remote-share" with the name of your file server) and it will list every opened document on that share, along with who has it open, and the file ID if I want to force the file closed. For me, this is a really long list, but it can be narrowed down by entering part of a path:
psfile \\remote-share I:\\Human_Resources
This is kind of tricky, since in my case this remote share is mounted as Z: on my local machine, but psfile identifies paths as they are defined on the remote file server, which in my case is I: (yours will be different). I just had to comb through the results of my first psfile run to see some of the paths it returned and then run it again with a partial path to narrow down the results.
Optionally, PsFile will let you specify credentials for the remote share if you need to supply them for access.
Lastly, a little known tip: if someone clicks on a file in Windows Explorer and cuts or copies the file with the intent to paste it somewhere else, that act also places a lock on the file.
Just in case someone looking for a solution to this for a Windows based system or NAS:
There is a built-in function in Windows that shows you what files on the local computer are open/locked by remote computer (which has the file open through a file share):
- Select "Manage Computer" (Open "Computer Management")
- click "Shared Folders"
- choose "Open Files"
There you can even close the file forcefully.
On Windows 2008 R2 servers you have two means of viewing what files are open and closing those connections.
Via Share and Storage Management
Server Manager > Roles > File Services > Share and Storage Management > right-click on SaSM > Manage Open File
Via OpenFiles
CMD > Openfiles.exe /query /s SERVERNAME
See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490961.aspx.