Vb net streamwriter the process cannot access the file

First, I'm creating a tab delimited text file in one screen, and writing a 'header' line as its first line, then 'closing' and 'disposing' of both the FileStream and StreamWriter. I'm getting the 'cannot access the file Additional background info: the data is collected from a serial port based on a system.

I think I see what's happening. In the second part, you are creating a new StreamWriter that is opening the file directly instead of creating a FileStream that gets passed to a StreamWriter as you did in the first part. When you do this, the second part of the code blocks the first. It doesn't share access to the file.

Also, if the first file still has it open, the second part tries to open it without share access but it can't because another file is using it.

The simple solution is to change your second part to load the file using a filestream with the FileShare. ReadWrite flag set. This way, both sections of code get access to the same file. You don't even have to close and dispose of the file. You can keep it open in both locations if you wish. You can't close the first stream from the second because the first is used in a timer, which puts in in another thread. You can't modify objects declared in one thread from another thread not safely, or easily anyway.

But if you do the filestream in the second part, you shouldn't have to try to close the first stream at all! The first thing I would try is on both streams change the FileShare. Write to FileShare. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. The Overflow Blog. Stack Gives Back Safety in numbers: crowdsourcing data on nefarious IP addresses.

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Related Questions. Any idea why it is showing the process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process? Layout: fixed fluid. Try using File. Open fileName, FileMode. Open, FileAccess. Read, FileShare. None ;. Ravi Vanapalli Ravi Vanapalli 9, 3 3 gold badges 30 30 silver badges 41 41 bronze badges.

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