Solved Onedrive files on PC and Android

Hello

I hope Im posting this in the correct place.

I use an excel spreadsheet daily for work purposes, 90% of the time I use the spreadsheet file directly from my PC in the excel app. On odd occasions I need to use the same file on my android in the excel app there. It syncs and I find out some information, put it in the spreadsheet file, the data syncs to OneDrive and then I can reopen the file on my PC with the data entered on the android in the spreadsheet file. Very convenient. However - I noticed this this morning - although the data syncs from my PC to OneDrive as normal when it opens on the android it opens as read only, a message appears on the android app saying that "Nicholas Scott (that's my name and I assume it's taken by excel as the author of the spreadsheet) has locked this file. You can save changes to a copy or open the file later". I am able to enter data into the spreadsheet but when I close it on the android, I have to either dismiss changes or save a copy. Very inconvenient. All of this worked perfectly a week or 2 ago so I am not sure what has changed. I hope I explained it correctly.

A couple of things come to mind:
1.) Is your Android device a personally owned device or is it one approved by your corporation and managed under an MDM (Mobile Device Management) policy?
2.) Are you attempting to access your OneDrive account with the same account from your Android? (Work OneDrive vs. Personal OneDrive?)

The message that you are receiving from OneDrive seems to indicate some sort of permissions issue.

Hi
It is my own android cellphone. The pc and the phone are logged into the same onedrive account, it is a personal onedrive account that nobody besides myself has access to. I think you are correct in assuming it a permissions issue

OK, so your environment should work like my own then. I also have a spreadsheet that I use for various things and sometimes access it (and change data) from my Android phone, too.
When I access the OneDrive app on my phone, I am presented with a list of recently accessed files. When I touch one of the files, it opens on the phone in a read-only format, however, if I look at the bottom of the screen, I see a small Excel icon which, if I touch that will open the file in an editable format in Excel mobile. I can then make changes which are synced to the cloud.

I do believe that this is a recent change to the way things are done with OneDrive.

If, on the other hand, I access the file through the Microsoft 365 (Office) app, which is also installed on my phone, I am immediately placed into the editable screen and changes sync as before.

I will check this out, yes i have seen the icon you are talking about. Unfortunately i havnt got access to my pc at the moment to see if the changes sync to the "pc version" of the spreadsheet. I will try as soon as i am able to.

I have just checked.
I made some changes to the spreadsheet file on the PC
I saved the file, and it uploaded to OneDrive
I opened it via OneDrive app on my android phone
I found the icon you were speaking about and pressed it
The spreadsheet opens with the changes done on the PC
The same message appears READ ONLY - NICHOLAS SCOTT HAS LOCKED THIS FILE. YOU CAN SAVE CHANGES TO A COPY OR OPEN THE FILE LATER.
When I exit the file on the phone, I am given the option to DISCARD CHANGES or SAVE - only clicking save I am presented when locations to save the file

Like mentioned before I like it has to do with permissions, it was working before (I opened the file directly in the excel app on my phone)
I feel that something on my computer is locking the file so that when it opens on another device (my phone in this case) it is read only because the file recognises that it is open on a different device. How do I solve this?? I was thinking of copying the data out of the file and creating a new spreadsheet file, do you think that would work?

I have just looked at the documents directory on my PC, in the STATUS column next to the name of the file appears the OneDrive green tick in a white circle and an icon of a little person (shared I assume), on checking my other documents some have the OneDrive cloud in the status bar but none have the little person icon, might this be the problem and if so how do I get that icon off of my file, I assume it's in properties but where.

I went to the file, right clicked and chose SHARE there was a link (how it got there I dont know) - anyway I deleted the link - can't remember the steps I used but the little person icon is now gone. Now to check if I can save changes to the spreadsheet file on my phone.

Looks like that solved it. I hope detailing the steps I used is of help to someone for whatever problem they are facing.

I have marked it as unsolved because I just tested it and it doesn't seem to be working, I am going to transfer the data in the file to a new spreadsheet because I have a suspicion that one of the files - probably the one on the computer is syncing to a different file on OneDrive or on the phone. I get back to you.

Ok I made a new file - copied/pasted the data from one to the other. The it said (excel) something about links, and I looked at links and was able to delete the link that was there. It seemed to be linked to my old spreadsheet. Anyway, I broke that link. But I still can only open the file on my phone in read only mode. There must be a setting in excel, in the properties of the file, in one drive that lets me ass my phone as a trusted device to open the file, but I dont know where to look. Just tried to open another file - also a spreadsheet created on the PC and saved in the ondrive folder and I am able to save to it. So it must be something in the file.

Ok, I have found the problem, my version of Excel doesnt support co - authoring, I was using somebody else's excel when it did work.

Wow, Nickynoo! You have provided us with a great set of notes and a clinic in basic troubleshooting.
Thank you for your persistence and willingness to share with the rest of the forum.
I am pleased to hear that you were able to solve your problem.

Thanks, i should have known that something was up with my version of excel right off the bat. I guess we get comfortable when things "just work" and only notice when they dont. I have be using my friends computer, well excel for some time and things just worked, now that my own computer is running im using that and my copy if excel, where unfortunately things dont work as they did with my friends excel, however my does say something about reopening the file and then the changes done on the phone, populate to the computers excel. Dont know what difference it makes but it gets me to my final goal anyway.

It seems that impatience is the source of many problems.
I have since discovered what I was doing wrong. If you read through this thread, you will see that I use a spreadsheet on my PC and occasionally need to update figures on it on my android phone using OneDrive. I had to do so today, so I worked out where I was going wrong. After updating on the android and afterwards saving to OneDrive, I went back to my PC version of the spreadsheet and saw that it had not been updated, I realised that (for some reason) updating data on an android and then uploading it to OneDrive takes time - well it takes time for the changes to reflect on the OneDrive file on my pc. Well, I closed my computer file and waited a while for OneDrive to load properly and then I reopened the file and my changes were there. If I had just had patience I would never had problems in the first place. Reminds me of something my mom used to say "Patience is a virtue, a virtue is a grace and Grace was a little girl who never washed her face."