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I am running a batch script (on computer A). The script copies several files from another computer (computer B) to computer A. When the batch script is run, it reports it is unable to xcopy some files from computer B to its own directories due to 'Sharing Violations'.

By reading other stackoverflow pages, I see that this happens when another other program has the file locked up (another program is currently using/accessing the file). However, I can go onto computer B and delete the file which computer A claimed was locked (due to sharing violations).

The only thing i can imagine might be happening is that the batch script on computer A is locking up the file (somehow) during an earlier command and this earlier command is what is locking up the file? But I though batch script commands run serially unless specified otherwise.

Has anyone ever had this problem before? The script would copy successfully without sharing violations about a week or two ago. No changes have occurred in the script.

Fractal
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9 Answers9

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After much trial and error I was able to determine why I was getting a shared violation

I was copying files from computer B to computer A

I thought the sharing violations were occurring because computer B was not allowing me to make a copy of those files [stored on its harddrive].

In actuality, the directory on computer A (computer copying to) had files which I could not write over. This is why I was getting the shared violation.

One of the files in the directory on computer A was an executable task which I thought had been killed (taskkill). However, this executable got overlooked in the taskkill (actually wasn’t listed in the task manager for some reason) process and this program was still running (the file was in use). Therefore, when I tried to overwrite the file, xcopy was denied access to overwrite this file/executable, resulting in shared violations.

I was under the impression that sharing violations would only occur during xcopy if the files on computer B would not allow the copy to occur.

Fractal
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    End: Sharing Violation message was NOT False ... just not fully understood. – Fractal Dec 05 '13 at 03:26
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    The genius that wrote this universal utility couldn't spare 15 seconds to write a more meaningful error message – Sarsaparilla Apr 09 '17 at 21:48
  • I know this is an old post, but I am suddenly dealing with a couple of puzzling problems. I put together some backup batch files over 15 years ago and have been using them since to do hourly, weekly and monthly backups. The hourly keeps my portable drive current so I have access to all my important files on the road. Backups are done recognizing archive bits. Suddenly, out of five main directories it is only copying files from one .directory, which ends in a sharing violation. Other directories, both prior to and after that directory simply show 0 files copied. Win 7 OS. – RationalRabbit Apr 21 '21 at 12:46
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Most of the times when you have this problem is because another executable program (exe) is somehow using the files you want to copy over. Just kill the program using task manager and the copy will work.

Community
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Thiago Burgos
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The /C switch solved the issue for me. Xcopy then skipped the files that were opened by other programms and went on.

Andrej
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I ran into the same issue with xcopy in a batch file and discovered that the file causing the sharing violation had the Read Only attribute set. Removing the Read Only attribute allowed the file to be copied.

I should note that I was already using the /R switch with xcopy to allow overwriting read only files. I've also discovered that the file was already in the destination folder with the Read Only attribute set, and it appears that Read Only has been reset on the target file after it was xcopied successfully. I still need to investigate this further. The /K switch may prevent this.

Also worth noting is that my batch file contained a series of xcopy statements. The sharing violation crashed the first line, but allowed the batch file to continue to subsequent xcopy lines. The error had been occurring unnoticed for quite some time, as the sharing violation message had scrolled off the screen. I could also try using the /C switch to continue copying even if errors occur.

I hope this might help others that run into this issue.

Bob
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Sometimes a file/directory can be temporarily unavailable/locked by another process. If your batch program tries to copy at that moment it will result in a "unknown error/shared violation".

Using robocopy instead of "xcopy/copy" may be more relevant in that case, as it does not fail immediately, but retries a couple of times before failing.

Constantinos Makassikis
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For me this occurred when I was attempting to copy a war file into a tomcat directory. I kept checking to see that, indeed, tomcat was stopped. The issue was I had the war file open in 7zip as I was examining the contents. I closed 7zip and the issues when away.

Obvious now, not so much when this was occurring.

Pete B.
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I ran into the same problem... The problematic file was an excel sheet. The cause of the problem was, that file I wanted to copy was opened by my colleague. It's good to mention that I am copying data from my station to the shared folder. So xcopy can't override it.

kovalensue
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I had "Access denied" that went away if I ran the .BAT file as Administrator.

Some ACT! files were held open by background SQL and gave "Sharing violation" message for each file. I killed the background SQL processes and the files copied with no issues.

Not sure if robocopy would have worked; I'm still using Xcopy at this point.

Bardi
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In my instance it was IIS locking a file in the target folder.

Found this by looking in the: Resource Monitor --> CPU Tab --> Selected all Processes --> Searched for the folder on the search bar of Associated Handles and ordered by the Handle Name to find the directory I was targeting

HostMyBus
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