63888: Acronis Cyber Backup: Activity fails with "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process" and "Failed to lock the file because it is opened in another program"

Last update: 25-05-2023

Symptoms

Activity fails with the following error:

Failed to lock the file because it is opened in another program,

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process

Cause

Acronis Agent cannot access a file which is needed for the performed operation as it is locked by another process.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting steps depend on the file that is being locked. To detect which file causes the error, open the activity details in the console and look at the string after "path":

Error code: 23
Module: 4
LineInfo: 0xF35F747B3B21F916
Fields: {"path":"\\\\?\\C:\\HyperV\\AcronisBackup.avhdx","$module":"hv_srv_vsa64_14330","function":"OpenFileW"}
Message: Failed to lock the file.

Scenario 1

The error occurs during installation or update/upgrade; the inaccessible file belongs to UpgradeTool:

| error 0x40017: Failed to lock the file.
| line: 0xf35f747b3b21f916
| file: d:\976\core\file\windows\winnt_dir.cpp:525
| function: winnt_dir::OpenFile
| function: OpenFileW
| path: \\?\C:\ProgramData\Acronis\UpgradeTool\upgrade-2021-01-29T14.02.32.266Z-p11228\upgrade.trace
| $module: upgrade_tool_vsa64_26077

| error 0xfff0: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
| line: 0xbd28fdbd64edb8f8
| file: d:\976\core\common\error.cpp:314
| function: Common::Error::AddWindowsError
| code: 0x80070020
| $module: upgrade_tool_vsa64_26077
| path: \?\C:\ProgramData\Acronis\UpgradeTool\upgrade-2021-01-29T14.02.32.266Z-p11228\upgrade.trace

Scenario 2

The inaccessible file is a snapshot of Hyper-V virtual machine that should be backed up. e.g :
"path":"\\\\?\\C:HyperV\\AcronisBackup.avhdx"

Scenario 3

The affected file is a backup archive in .tib or .tibx format.

Example of log:

| error 0x40017: Failed to lock the file.
| line: 0xf35f747b3b21f9ef
| file: e:\381\core\file\windows\winnt_dir.cpp:742
| function: winnt_dir::Remove
| function: DeleteFileW
| path: \\?\UNC\192.168.1.1\backup\Acronis\Location\Acronis-2617B806-C0DA-64C6-B587-31EA53B79A3C-CE62E4AE-7F5A-4460-BC1B-26A9AAF66253A_2019_11_29_07_31_32_591D7.TIB
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_12960
|
| error 0xfff0: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
| line: 0xbd28fdbd64edb8f1
| file: e:\381\core\common\error.cpp:307
| function: Common::Error::AddWindowsError
| code: 0x80070020
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_12960

Scenario 4

The affected file is a system file during file-level backup:

|Fields: {"$module":"disk_bundle_vsa64_24476","code":2147942432,"function":"CreateFileW","path":"\\\\?\\C:\\Documents and Settings\\Robert\\NTUSER.DAT"}
|Message: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

 

Scenario 5

If none of the above applies, you can do the following:

  1. Check what process is using the affected file from "path" with Process Explorer - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

    With this, you can search to find what process(es) have the file open, and you can use it to close the handle(s), or close the whole process. 

    To find a specific file, use the menu option Find->Find Handle or DLL... 
    Type in part of the path to the file. The list of processes will appear below.

  2. If the process that is handling the file can be ended, end it manually, or give it some time to complete and retry the operation.

Collect information

If the above instructions do not help resolve the issue, collect the following information and contact Acronis support: