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If another user tried to open that same file at the same time, their computer would have recognized the lock file and not allowed the second user to open the Office file. This is how the lock “lock” file received its name.
When the first user closed the Office file, the lock file automatically deleted itself.
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These files are usually set to “hidden,” which means they are invisible in File Explorer (Windows) and Finder (macOS). However, the automatic deletion event command that should remove have removed the lock file when you close closed the Office file doesn’t didn’t always happenwork. Therefore, an orphaned file remains. This file is no longer connected to the source file, and it will sit there forever. This usually isn’t an issue due to the extremely small file size of the lock file, and they’re “hidden” which means they are never seen by the user.
However now that data is being migrated to SharePoint, these files are becoming visible. The data migration tool used by ITS moves these lock files as if they were any other file. None of In the files migrated into SharePoint will be set to “hidden,” and all the migration, these files lost their “hidden” attribute, so all previously hidden files are no now visible to all users.
You may see ~$ files that correlate to files that have since been moved or deleted, leaving only the ~$ remaining causing you to believe the file has been corrupted. This is not the case. Corrupted files will not append “~$” to themselves as a warning.
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