"This library is currently being used by someone else. Try opening it again later"

Thanks, it’s help me too

I want to pass on a good piece of advice  to solve this issue that I got from a Norwegian customer supporeter (thanks, Thorgrim) a few years back and that I just now checked (high Sierra + Endnote X8), is still working (with the same and other error messages indicating a corrupted library): 

Create a new folder

Move the .enw file into the folder, double-click it. 

If the enw.file is not currupted, it will open in Endnote, creating automatically a new data folder (with the subfolders PDF, rdb and tdb) - but of course without the PDF’s of your old library.

Then copy the pdf’s from your old library to the new PDF folder. 

This did not solve my problem. None of the suggestions about copying the file and placing somewhere else solve the problem. Currently, I have no access to my main library. I tried a different library and it opened fine. But this makes no sense, as I was using my main library just yesterday on the same computer. Nothing has changed since then. How has the library suddenly become corrupted?

Did you copy both the .enl file and the .DATA folder to the same new location?  

Greetings All,

I too experienced this frightening issue with Endnote X8. I called Endnote support (1-800-336-4474; Option 4) and they wonderfully gave me the following instructions for MAC Book Pro (High Sierra):

  1. Create a new folder in APPLICATIONS called “Endnote Libraries”.
  2. Copy and paste your corrupted Endnote library (.enl) and its corresponding .Data folder to the new folder you just created. 
  3. Open Endnote X8 program.
  4. Go to Tools “Recover Library”.
  5. Choose the new copied version of your .enl file in the “Endnote Libraries” folder you just created.
  6. It will recover your library and make a new file with a new name by simply adding “-Saved” to it (ORIGINALNAME-Saved.enl) and it will also paste a new corresponding .Data folder with the “-Saved” added.
  7. Open the new “-Saved.enl” file and voila - your library is back.

All of my groups, attachments (PDFs,), etc. were there too. Crisis averted

Thanks - this has solved my issue too.  So not cloud friendly, even though my library is synced in your cloud.  Too funny!

I came across the same issue today, but fortunately found a quick solution (which might have been particular to my circumstances).

I recently migrated from 2013 MacBook Air to 2018 MacBook Pro, both using fully up-to-date software. iCloud Desktop + Documents was enabled on both machines. I successfully opened my EndNote X8 library on MBP. Later, while Apple Support helped me with an unrelated matter, I disabled iCloud and re-enabled it. When I opened EndNote today, I got the dreaded error message other users have mentioned. Not wanting to go through the labourious steps mentioned above, I checked my EndNote folders and found that many of them were in the cloud, but not locally downloaded (they had the cloud with down arrow logo next to them). I clicked on the cloud icon to manually download EndNote folders, then rebooted (because why not). On reboot, I was able to open my old library without having to go through the recovery process.

Just thought I’d offer this in case it helps anyone else!

I came across the same issue today, but fortunately found a quick solution (which might have been particular to my circumstances).

I recently migrated from 2013 MacBook Air to 2018 MacBook Pro, both using fully up-to-date software. iCloud Desktop + Documents was enabled on both machines. I successfully opened my EndNote X8 library on MBP. Later, while Apple Support helped me with an unrelated matter, I disabled iCloud and re-enabled it. When I opened EndNote today, I got the dreaded error message other users have mentioned. Not wanting to go through the labourious steps mentioned above, I checked my EndNote folders and found that many of them were in the cloud, but not locally downloaded (they had the cloud with down arrow logo next to them). I clicked on the cloud icon to manually download EndNote folders, then rebooted (because why not). On reboot, I was able to open my old library without having to go through the recovery process.

Just thought I’d offer this in case it helps anyone else!

I ran into the same problem as the folks on this page recently. I did the following and it worked for me:

I took several files from the .data folder and deleted them from the rdb and tdb subfolders. Files: csort 2.MYI, csort.frm, csort. MYD, csort.MYD 8.49.52 PM, csort.MYI 

I have no idea why this worked. I was just systematically deleting newly updated files from the day it malfunctioned. 

THANK YOU  nhnorsker!!!  

I just spent a couple of figuring out how to get my Library to open, got in touch with the tech support, it did not work. All the other options were tried to no avail. This one solution works, many thanks to Thorgrim and you. And copying the pdf file content works, but I tried to also copy the rdb content (maybe my groups are there??) but it messed up things again, so I reverse that, and I just have to regroup my refs… again, I am just happy to be able to open it again and to have the pdf.

Another idea came to my mind as I was reading the thread. If you library was previously synced, you can create an empty library and sync it again (download it from the server). Worked for me. Thanks to all of you for the sharing of ideas!

This happened to me months ago, but unfortunately I forgot how I resolved it. I think I had switched to Box Drive from Dropbox in hopes of it being specific to the cloud storage provider.

Since most people said it was cloud-related and my library is in a Box Drive folder, I looked to see what files had changed around the time the error popped up. Three files in the “rdb” folder had been edited.

The “pdf_index (MYUSERNAME 2).myd” file was new, but it was the first version of it.

Next were the “misc.myd” and “misc.myi” files. I restored these to versions that predated this error about the library being used by someone else.

The library opened fine and a Word doc that used this library “Updated Citations and Bibliography” just fine! Success after spinning my wheels for too long!

Cloud storage has been so helpful when switching machines, so I hope this can be less of a problem in the future. 

Hi all, 

I just find a solution that works for me. You get this error because some of the files are saved in the cloud (not offline accessible).  Just make sure both the data folder and .enl file are locally available by clicking the iCloud icon on the right of the folder/file name. Now it works like a charm.

Leo

Hi all, 

I just find a solution that works. You get this error because some of the files are saved in the cloud (not offline accessible).  Just make sure both the data folder and .enl file are locally available by clicking the iCloud icon on the right of the folder/file name. Now it works like a charm.

best,
Leo

Hi all, 

I just find a solution that works for me. You get this error because some of the files are saved in the cloud (not offline accessible).  Just make sure both the data folder and .enl file are locally available by clicking the iCloud icon on the right of the folder/file name. Hope it will work for you as well.

Leo

This may be the end of my use of EndNote. This error has popped up twice since my last post. I had to revert about 9 files in the “rdb” folder to previous versions and delete one new PDF I had added.

I am seeing that some files in the “rdb” folder are changing while I have Endnote open in the background but not actively using it. I have attached a screenshot of 4 files that changed today when I opened my laptop, either before or while was trying to import a new reference. The “library currently being used error” popped up right away. This only a symptom of root of the problem. I’m not sure what to do to fix this longterm, aside from trying to keep EndNote closed when I’m not using it.

Any help is appreciated.

Screenshot 2019-01-11 12.03.09.jpg

This issue is persisting in X9 as I found out today. I am running the latest version of MacOS and am the only user of my library. Restarting does not do anything to resolve the issue and I attempted to do the copy/rename method to resolve the library and was able to open it, but the references in it are not up to date…some do not have changes or are missing which I made over a month ago. Hoping to resolve this I started a sync to the online backup I have with Endnote (I don’t sync regularly but I was hoping that syncing might give me a slightly more up to date version of my library). In any event, syncing has made Endnote loose its mind. I had around 400 references in my original library, I began the sync about an hour ago and figured I’d let it do what it had to do while I took a lunch break. I came back to the computer to see the sync is still running and that my library now has over TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND references and counting. I’m not wanted to close it at risk of loosing or corrupting my library completely, but it is showing no signs of slowing. This is really unacceptable behaviour for such a pricey piece of software that so many people depend upon. Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated.

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I recently upgraded to X9, and the problem persists: I do not manage to import any .enw files, the message keeps popping up. I tried all the proposed solution and wasted several hours: no results.

Are there any suggestions how to fix it?

@bgensits: have you managed to solve the problem?

call support?  

Same problem here, using latest Update of X9 on latest version of Mac OS and tried everything from restarts, renaming, recovering, reinstall… you name it. 

Totally agree, that this should not happen for such a pricey software. Very disappointed!

Hope someone finds a solution for this soon 

 

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