The company is currently open by another user" in Sage 50
Sage 50 thinks the company file is locked by another user or program, even when nobody else has it open.
You have just tried to open your company and Sage 50 stopped you with:
The company is currently open by another user or is currently in use by another application.
In plain terms, Sage 50 believes the company file is locked. It thinks someone else, or some other program, already has it open. Often that is literally true. Just as often, nobody else is using the file at all, and the lock is left over from a session that ended badly, such as a crash, a power cut, or a workstation that was shut down while Sage was still running.
Is someone actually using the file?
Check first, because the simplest explanation is usually the right one. On a networked setup, ask whether a colleague has the company open in Sage 50, or has it open in single-user mode, which blocks everyone else. Also consider background tools: backup software, sync services, and third-party add-ons can hold the file while they work. If a sync or backup product is scanning the folder, it can trigger this message even with no user in the file.
Has everyone closed Sage but the message persists?
Then you are looking at a stale lock. When Sage 50 closes cleanly it releases its lock files; when it is killed mid-session it does not, and the next person to open the company gets this message. Restarting the workstation, and the machine hosting the file if there is one, clears most transient locks. Make sure every user has exited Sage before you restart anything, or you will trade one lock for another.
If the message survives a full restart of all machines, the lock files themselves may be damaged or orphaned. Which files those are, and whether they can safely be removed, depends on your Sage 50 edition and how the data is stored, so we would rather not guess in general terms. Deleting the wrong file in the company folder can make matters worse, not better.
Did the file crash while being converted or updated?
A company that was mid-conversion, mid-backup-restore, or mid-version-update when the interruption hit can be left half-written. In that case the message is a symptom, not the cause. The file itself needs attention before it will open reliably on any machine, under any user.
When the file needs professional attention
If the lock persists after every user has closed Sage and every machine has been restarted, the company data itself is likely damaged. Our engineers repair damaged Sage 50 and Simply Accounting databases, recovering the data into a clean company file that opens normally. You can send us the file for a free evaluation of your Sage 50 database, with no obligation, and we will tell you what is wrong and what recovery involves before anything is charged.
If you were in the middle of moving this data to QuickBooks when the lock appeared, see our Sage 50 to QuickBooks conversion service as well; a damaged source file does not have to stop the conversion.