My wife and I are using FM 6.0 for a camp database. We both have iMacs
connected to a local network.

The database resides on her computer and I'm unable to open it on mine.

If I try to simply use File>Open, I'm told I'm about to become the host,
even if she's using the file. When I click OK, I get the message
"...cannot be opened as read-only in its current state. Please unlock
the file and open and close it before attempting to lock the file again."

If I use File>Open Remote (we only do this once a year, so I forget how
we've done it in the past), I get a Hosts window, but can't get her
computer to show in any window.

Thanks for any help.

Steve

On Jun 13, 12:05 pm, Steve Bailey <yearbo... (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote:
You'll need to use File->Open Remote and select her machine in the
host network.
If her machine isn't showing up in the host network on a *simple* LAN,
then its probalbly simply that she's not sharing the files from within
filemaker.

If the lan is not simple, its possible that various router
configuration, firewalls, and other infrastructure are preventing you
from seeing or reaching her machine. You might be able to add a host
manually by entering her ip address.

-cheers,
Dave

In article
<yearbooks-773BD0.12053713062007 (AT) news (DOT) lga.highwinds-media.com>, Steve
Bailey <yearbooks (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote:

According to FileMaker's documentation you should never open files
across a network in this way. The operating system's own file sharing
can cause the FileMaker files to become corrupted. (Although this may
be a Windows only problem since I've never run across it on Macs where
I have opened files in this way many, many times.)

You should instead always use the Open Hosts / Open Remote command from
within FileMaker itself ... and of course the file must be open on the
other computer and be shared.



Firstly, the file(s) must be open on her computer - believe me, this is
something VERY easily over-looked.

Next the file(s) must be set to be shared. With the file open, choose
Sharing from the File menu and set it to "Multi-user" (each file in a
multi-file solution will need to be set this way). The file(s) should
then appear in FileMaker's Open Hosts / Open Remote window on the other
computers.

This asumes that all the copies of FileMaker are set-up in the
Application Preferences to use the same type of networking protocol and
of course are actually able to connect (eg. you can't connect
wirelessly if one computer has no wireless connection).


Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:05:37 -0700, Steve Bailey <yearbooks (AT) cox (DOT) net>
wrote:

First make sure you've addressed the issues described by d-42 and
Harry in their replies to your post.

That done, if you still have problems then you probably need to add
your wife's system to the list of hosts on your system. Click
File>Open Remote... and the Open Remote File dialog box pops up. Click
the drop down arrow for Hosts and choose Favorite Hosts. Click the
Add button and enter the IP address on the network of your wife's
system. (You might need to check her network config for this info.)
Under File Settings, select the "Show all files for this host" radio
button, then click Save. That ought to do it.

Hope this helps

--
FW