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Sharing Violations (Error)

What is a sharing violation?​

A sharing violation is an error indicating that a file cannot be accessed by the backup agent because it is currently in use by another application.
This error occurs when the file is already open and:

  • Comes from a network share.
  • Or when a snapshot cannot be created.

File from a network share​

In the case of a network share, backups can only be performed in cold mode (file closed).

If you encounter this error, make sure that no application is using the files to be backed up on the shares. You can also create a copy of the data (such as a database dump, for example) to back it up and eliminate the error.

Snapshot error (VSS)​

On Windows systems, it is possible to back up an open file using the mechanism of (hot backup).

If the snapshot creation process does not work, open files cannot be backed up and will generate sharing violation errors.

In most cases, restarting the machine generating the snapshot solves the problem. If not, the causes can be complex and varied, and we recommend contacting your system administrator.