How do I clear locked users?

Summary

There are occasions during day to day use where you may find yourself being kicked out of Platinum while entering data, for example, a power cut. If this happens, in some circumstances, the record that you are creating or using will become locked. This article explains how to remove the "Dead users" from Platinum and unlock the files in use.

We suggest this is done at the end of a day as in most cases all users need to be out of the system to allow the clear-down to be done. This will also allow the backup to run through without any files being locked.

Example of "Record in Use" message

If for example you are invoicing an account and you have a power cut the next time you go into an account you would get an error message with the following wording:

The record you requested in currently in use. You
will be able to use this record when it becomes
available

You may press any (or the Quit) to
discontinue waiting.

This record is use by user JOE BLOGGS, at station
PC1

This tells you that the "Dead user" is Joe Bloggs and they were working on PC1 at the time of the crash. This will help when finding the correct user in the steps below.

Clearing ALL Users

Please Note: To follow this procedure you will need access to the "Systems" -> "Reports & Parameters" option. If you do not have access to these options they are usually allocated to a designated administration person within your company (e.g. a General Manager).

• Go to "Systems" -> "Reports & Parameters" -> "User Monitor Screen".
• This will show a list of all the users Platinum thinks are in the system.

WARNING: At this point ALL users MUST be out of Platinum. If the screen is cleared and there are still people using the system, they will run into problems.

• Once you are sure you are the only user physically in the system (at this point it may be difficult to tell if others are in if there are a lot of "Dead Users" on the screen), press <F10> followed by <F2>.

Clearing Individual Users

If you know the specific user you wish to delete either because of the dates shown on the monitor screen or because you have just crashed on the system, in which case the your "Dead User" will be ABOVE the user shown as being on the "User Monitor Screen".

Please Note: To follow this procedure you will need access to the "Systems" -> "Reports & Parameters" option. If you do not have access to these options they are usually allocated to a designated administration person within your company (e.g. a General Manager)

• Go to "Systems" -> "Reports & Parameters" -> "User Monitor Screen".
• This will show a list of all the users Platinum thinks are in the system.
• Press <F10>
  • This will bring up a screen that looks like this:

Remove any Critical users : N

         Delete from User :    0
                  To User :    0

• After checking the "User" column on the far left of the screen for the user you wish to delete, enter this number in the "Delete from User :" and "Delete to User :" fields.

Tip: If there is a range of users to delete, you can enter the lowest number of the user in the list in the "Delete from User :" and the highest number of the user in the "Delete to User :" and the system will delete all users in between in one go.

• Press <F2> to confirm the deletion and then exit the screen.

Important: If there are any lines on the screen that are highlighted in some way, this is due to Platinum being exited incorrectly while it was updating files. Please refer to the article below in the "See also" Section

.

See also

• How do I clear Highlighted Locked Users?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

Locked, record, in, use