I originally posted on the answers.microsoft.com forums, but was told to post in this forum instead. I still think this is more of a problem with IE9 than SharePoint, but I'm following the recommendation of the moderator.
We use SharePoint 2010 as our intranet and have recently run into an issue that involves IE9 and opening files that are open for editing by another user. Before upgrading all users to IE9, no clients had a problem opening files in IE8. Since upgrading, all users are having problems opening a file that is currently open for editing by another user.
Detailed information:
- The said files are located on a shared network folder and are displayed in SharePoint as a link to those files
- File are affected when open for editing via the link on SharePoint & via directly opening the file from the folder location on the shared folder
- The files are of multiple types (e.g., PDF, RPT)
- Affected users are viewing the files through a viewer program (e.g., Adobe Reader, Crystal Reports Viewer), so open for editing should not affect them, as it is a read only copy for them anyways
- Adobe Reader is affected whether or not viewing through the browser is enabled/disabled
- Adobe Reader is fully patched; IE9 is fully patched
- Only affects IE9 users
- IE8 users do not have this problem
- Affected users are running Windows 7; obviously, XP users cannot use 9, but Windows 7 with IE8 is unaffected
- Permissions to said folders is not a factor; Domain Admins even have this problem
- Opening the file directly from the folder where the file resides (instead of via SharePoint in IE9) yields success
- Selecting Save As, saving the file, then opening the file works
- Selecting Open fails with the message filename.ext couldn't be downloaded
I suspect that this is due to IE9's download manager. I'm not sure how this differs from IE8 saving a temporary copy to allow viewing. I understand this may be a SharePoint setting, but this issue only began when IE9 was installed, hence why I suspect it is with how IE9 handles opening a file. The fact that the file can be saved using Save As and then viewed points more to how IE9's download manager automatically saves a copy. I could be very wrong.
This is becoming a greater problem as each day goes on. In a perfect world, users would close files when they aren't working on them, but I think we all know of a few users who insist on having 70+ files open at all times and it's like pulling teeth trying to get them to close files, let alone answer their phones.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.