Usable Measures To Fix QuickBooks Company File In Use Error

Updated: Oct 3, 2023

QuickBooks company files contain the overall information of the users, including their business data and all the transaction records. QuickBooks Company File In Use Error Message can sometimes appear while accessing the company file. If you also come across this error message on your PC, read this entire blog to figure out its reasons and the methods to eliminate it quickly.

Engage our QB support team for quick troubleshooting by giving them a call at 1-855-856-0042.

Reasons

This rare issue develops when you try opening the company file in your QuickBooks. The reasons you fail to open the data file after the error message comes up on the screen are mentioned below-

Multiple systems are trying to host the company file, which causes the multi-user network to break down.
QuickBooks services running in the background might get blocked by an antivirus or the Windows Defender Firewall.
QuickBooks company file is already running in single-user mode on a workstation or server.

Related Post : How To Fix QuickBooks Error Code 3140

Solutions

You’ll bump into this error even after multiple attempts until you take the necessary measures to tackle the issue. The countermeasures applicable to rectify the company file error from your PC are mentioned below-

Solution 1- Do not let the Workstations host the file to ensure there aren’t multiple host computers

You’ll see a ‘Company file in use. Please wait’ error message while accessing a company file if multiple computers try to host the company file. This issue can also develop if the company file is opened in single-user mode on the server computer. For a successful multi-user network setup, the company file must be hosted by the server computer in multi-user mode, and all the workstations must run in single-user mode. Apply the following steps to remove the data file issue-

Open QuickBooks on all your workstations and access the File menu.
Click the Utilities option and select Stop hosting multi-user access to switch the software to single-user mode.
If you see Host multi-user access, then the software is already in single-user mode.
Go to the Server computer and open the File menu.
Tap Utilities and click the Host multi-user access option.
Open the QB Data file again.

If the error message stops you from opening the data file, move to the next solution.

Solution 2- Relaunch the QuickBooks services on the server computer

You can also come across this data file error message in QuickBooks if the software services crash in the background or they get blocked by the Windows Firewall. You can easily resolve the issue by stopping the QB services and restarting them on your PC, as shown in the following steps-

Close QuickBooks on all the workstations and approach the server computer.
Open the Run window on your PC and type ‘services.msc’ in the search field.
Go to the name column and choose QuickBooksDBXX (XX is the version) according to your product.
Click the Stop option and click the Start option.
Reopen QuickBooks and open the company file again.

Conclusion

We have reached the finishing of this blog, which aims to provide the reasons for the QuickBooks Company File In Use Error message coming up while accessing a data file. The methods to tackle the data file issue are also present in the blog, which you must use to terminate the error from your PC.

Consult a QB expert at 1-855-856-0042 to resolve your remaining doubts about the data file issue.