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.

More Information

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.

If you are on the latest version of the Platinum system this screen will be cleared automatically when you enter it. Click HERE for help on downloading and running a Platinum update.

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 is currently in use. You
will be able to use this record when it becomes
available

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

This record is in 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

To follow this procedure you will need access to the " Systems\Reports & Settings" 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 & Settings User Monitor Screen".
• This will show a list of all the users Platinum thinks are in the system.

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".

To follow this procedure you will need access to the " Systems\Reports & Settings" 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 & Settings User Monitor Screen".

• This will show a list of all the users Platinum registered as logged in.
• Press <F10>
  • This will bring up a screen that looks like this:

Remove?:       No

From User:     0
To:            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.

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.

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.

Locked Logistics Jobs

If you follow these steps and the users you are clearing are in Logistics and you still have a problem, you may also need to unlock your Logistics job records.

This can be done by following this Knowledge Base article.

See also

• How do I clear Highlighted Locked Users?
• How do I Unlock My Logistics Jobs?
• Troubleshooting Your Platinum Backup
• What are Browser Daemon Control entries on my User Monitor Screen?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

Locked, record, in, use, file in use, record locked, lock, dead, user, dead user, User Monitor

Tags

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