Eclipse - "Workspace in use or cannot be created, chose a different one."

Question

I'm trying to create a workspace in the /Users/Shared/ directory with the thought that I can share that workspace between users. The problem is that after I create the workspace and change the permission on it, I encounter the error below (image) without even switching to a different user.

I changed the permissions from

/Users/Shared $ ll
drwxr-xr-x  3 HristoOskov  wheel   102 Sep 18 20:07 myWorkspace

... to...

/Users/Shared $ ll
drwxrwxr-x  3 root         admin   102 Sep 18 19:45 myWorkspace

So what am I doing wrong here? How should I configure this workspace so that I can 1. get rid of the error message and 2. access it from both accounts without seeing the error message?

By the way, I'm working on Mac OS X Lion v10.7.1.

error

See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8489322/eclipse-says-workspace-in-use-or-cannot-be-created-chose-a-different-one-ho — Quetzalcoatl, Sep 25 '12 at 08:43

score 501 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 09 '18 at 17:40

501

Right answer can be found in this (duplicate) question.

I reproduced the answer here (and it works!):

Just delete the .lock file in the .metadata directory in your eclipse workspace directory

edited Mar 09 '18 at 17:40

Andrew G. Johnson

26,603
30
91
135

answered Oct 26 '12 at 06:20

jap1968

7,747
1
30
37

38

This should somehow be easier - how about it checks on startup and gives the option to remove the lock? It'd save 6000+ people a bit of trouble... – Aram Kocharyan Feb 15 '13 at 12:32
It helped 6000+ people but didn't solve for me :( any ideas? – reubenjohn May 22 '14 at 16:46
3

Solved! I simply needed to run Eclipse with Admin permissions! – reubenjohn May 22 '14 at 16:48
I didn't got the .metadata folder in my workspace I removed it from terminal and it really worked thanks..... – Karthika PB Apr 01 '15 at 12:41
1

In my case, it was file permission issue. When I change owner of workspace directory, it worked. – Bhushan Aug 08 '15 at 19:13
Would like to share one more solution as found in https://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/90961/, in which it changed the config to suspend the locking. – Patrick C. May 07 '18 at 07:23

txs · Answer 2 · 2013-07-31T21:38:10.903

42

I've seen 3 other fixes so far:

in .metadata/, rm .lock file
if 1) doesn't work, try end process javaw.exe etc. to exit the IDE
if 1)&2) doesn't work, try rm .log file in .metadata/, and double check .plugin/.
This always worked for me: relocate .metadata/, open and close eclipse, then overwrite .metadata back

The solution boils down to clean up the .metadata folder with correct contents

edited Jul 31 '13 at 21:38

answered Jun 22 '13 at 00:18

txs

989
8
12

3

Ending the javaw.exe process and restarting Eclipse worked for me. – JDJ Jun 26 '14 at 20:49
removing .metadata/.log fixed it for me – TheAmigo Jan 27 '15 at 21:08
2

Killing the process was the only thing that worked for me. – Machado Apr 23 '15 at 16:15
1

4 is working for me. I was using Citrix remote eclipse and deleting .lock from .metadata OR ending javaw.exe process was not working for me. – somnathchakrabarti Apr 19 '16 at 09:14

score 18 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '14 at 23:20

18

Sometimes deleting the .lock file does not work. You can try this:

Remove RECENT_WORKSPACES line from eclipse/configuration/.settings/org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs

answered May 28 '14 at 23:20

yildirimyigit

3,013
4
25
35

1

excellent solution. I host eclipse on a removable drive and when the drive letter changes, this is the solution that will fix it. – DMortensen Jan 14 '15 at 15:37
This did it for me. On Mac the file to edit is /Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/configuration/.settings/org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs – zeroimpl Jun 16 '21 at 02:19

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 28 '15 at 08:19

13

for windows users: In case of you can't remove .lock file and it gives you the following:

enter image description here

And you know that eclipse is already closed, just open Task Manager then processes then end precess for all eclipse.exe occurrences in the processes list.

answered Jan 28 '15 at 08:19

Muhammed Refaat

8,914
14
83
118

6

And Java too (javaw). – Marco Sulla Jun 30 '15 at 13:37
@LucasMalor in my case it wasn't exist, but good addition, may be someone will need it, thanks – Muhammed Refaat Jul 01 '15 at 08:10

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 19 '11 at 02:18

6

Workspaces can only be open in one copy of eclipse at once. Further, you took away your own write access from the looks of it. All the users in question have to have the 'admin' group for what you did to even work a little.

answered Sep 19 '11 at 02:18

bmargulies

97,814
39
186
310

Well, the one copy of Eclipse is easily solvable... I'll close it in UserA and open a new instance in UserB. Regarding the `admin`, I am an administrative user on my computer. Granted I don't understand much about these user groups, but I think being an admin should work. I just changed some stuff and it seems like the problem is not `admin`, its `root`. – Hristo Sep 19 '11 at 02:22
Running eclipse again in Administrator rights made it work again, thanks! – Michael De Keyser Jun 25 '14 at 00:06

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 19 '14 at 03:56

2

Running eclipse in Administrator Mode fixed it for me. You can do this by [Right Click] -> Run as Administrator on the eclipse.exe from your install dir.

I was on a working environment with win7 machine having restrictive permission. I also did remove the .lock and .log files but that did not help. It can be a combination of all as well that made it work.

edited Mar 19 '14 at 03:56

NicolasMoise

7,261
10
44
65

answered Mar 19 '14 at 03:35

Nikhilesh Gargi

91
1
3

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 14 '13 at 12:23

An additional reason could be that you're pointing to a workspace on a drive that no longer exists, thinking that you're choosing the valid one. For instance, for me the workspace used to exist on the F drive, but now it is on my D drive. Even though I don't have the F drive anymore it is still listed as a workspace I once used during Eclipse startup. When I choose this old workspace Eclipse complains that the workspace is "in use", which is very strange.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 20 '14 at 14:23

0

In my case this occurred on a test instance of Eclipse run from my main Eclipse session during plugin development. An error caused the gui to disappear, but didn't totally kill it. Hitting the stop button in the console took care of it.

answered Jun 20 '14 at 14:23

Brad Mace

27,194
17
102
148

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 07 '14 at 11:45

0

Check that you have enough rights to workspace directory. I got this error when I didn't have write permission to workspace.

answered Aug 07 '14 at 11:45

tok

909
1
10
21

score -1 · Answer 10 · answered May 01 '13 at 10:25

-1

Go to TaskManager(Right Click in the Task Bar) and select Processess menu bar and select eclipse.exe and Click EndProcess

answered May 01 '13 at 10:25

Suresh Babu

211
2
2

Did he say he is running Windows? – Armen Michaeli Jun 10 '13 at 13:38

Eclipse - "Workspace in use or cannot be created, chose a different one."

10 Answers10

Linked