Cannot delete files after using PM on PC

[alash]

I've been using Photo Mechanic with no problems for several years up until about three weeks ago. My metadata workflow is such that a photographer "copies" his photos with unique metadata from a Mac to a server (stage one), stage two is a person who adds dates, captions/IDs, etc. using PM on a PC (this is where the problem is occurring) and then moves the folder into a "ready to catalog" folder. All of a sudden, now we can't move or delete files or folders that person in stage two has opened and added metadata using PM. When I go to delete I get a "operation cannot be completed because the item is in use" and when I go to move I get "the operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items". What is Photo Mechanic doing now? Leaving invisible files open on the network? If so, how to I find them and get rid of them? Why would this problem show up now?

[Kirk Baker]

I've been using Photo Mechanic with no problems for several years up until about three weeks ago. My metadata workflow is such that a photographer "copies" his photos with unique metadata from a Mac to a server (stage one), stage two is a person who adds dates, captions/IDs, etc. using PM on a PC (this is where the problem is occurring) and then moves the folder into a "ready to catalog" folder. All of a sudden, now we can't move or delete files or folders that person in stage two has opened and added metadata using PM. When I go to delete I get a "operation cannot be completed because the item is in use" and when I go to move I get "the operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items". What is Photo Mechanic doing now? Leaving invisible files open on the network? If so, how to I find them and get rid of them? Why would this problem show up now?

I don't know of any bugs that would cause files to be left open.  What version of PM are you running on each system?  What kind of server are you using?  What do the permissions look like on the files stored on the server? 

We don't create invisible files in Photo Mechanic other than the .pmarragement.dat file which is created when a user reorders thumbnails manually, but even then the file is not left open.

What happens if the user on the Windows PC quits PM?  Can you move the files then?  There is no way for an application to leave a file open beyond its execution, meaning when PM exits all files would automatically be closed by the OS.

-Kirk

[alash]

My ITS people say that the server is Windows 2003 and the rights are NTFS Modify rights. Both our PC and Mac users log out of PM after each workflow phase and logout of their machines each day. The problem files/folders have existed on the server for several weeks and we still cannot move/delete/edit them.

[Kirk Baker]

My ITS people say that the server is Windows 2003 and the rights are NTFS Modify rights. Both our PC and Mac users log out of PM after each workflow phase and logout of their machines each day. The problem files/folders have existed on the server for several weeks and we still cannot move/delete/edit them.

Well, what is special about those particular folders?  What is keeping them from being deleted?  Can the IT people determine what permissions are set such that you cannot complete those operations?

I can't think of anything that Photo Mechanic would do to a folder (or a file) to keep it from being moved or deleted.

If this were a common problem there would be quite a number of people complaining about it here on the forums.  So I have to imagine that something particular to your configuration is causing the problem.

-Kirk

[GregH]

An update:
(I'm the ITS guy helping alash.)

There's a conflict between Windows PhotoMechanic and McAfee VirusScan (on the server hosting the file share). PhotoMechanic seems to touch the files in such a way that VirusScan won't let go, which prevents user from moving or deleting folder. Stop VirusScan, and user can move folder.

Any suggestions for how I can phrase PhotoMechanic activities in such a way for McAfee tech support to understand? I'm not a PhotoMechanic user, just an admin of the file server.

[Kirk Baker]

An update:
(I'm the ITS guy helping alash.)

There's a conflict between Windows PhotoMechanic and McAfee VirusScan (on the server hosting the file share). PhotoMechanic seems to touch the files in such a way that VirusScan won't let go, which prevents user from moving or deleting folder. Stop VirusScan, and user can move folder.

Any suggestions for how I can phrase PhotoMechanic activities in such a way for McAfee tech support to understand? I'm not a PhotoMechanic user, just an admin of the file server.

Hmm.  Well it depends on the file type that is being captioned, but basically usage pattern is:

1) The file is expanded.
2) Data is inserted into the expanded area.
3) Various tags will have their offsets changed. (These offsets will be updated in place.)
4) The file is closed.

That's it.  We use standard I/O like fread(), fseek(), fwrite(), etc.  Nothing special.

HTH,

-Kirk