Sage 50 Accounts – Error: Username is in use – the program cannot connect you at this time

Did your entire computer or Sage 50 Accounts crash on you? Perhaps one of the annoying Windows updates restarted your computer whilst Sage Accounts was open? Now you try and launch Sage Accounts, enter your username and password (or the default username of manager) and it gives you an error stating:

 

 

Username is in use – the program cannot connect you at this time

Your only option is to click OK which isn’t very helpful. Even after a full system reboot the same thing happens. Note that I use Sage 50 Accounts Plus 2011 (v17) but I’ve had the same thing happen before in Sage 2010, 2007 etc and the principal behind the fix hasn’t changed so give it a try.

After half an hour on the phone to Sage support, there is a very simple solution:

  1. Click on Start–>My Computer
  2. Double click on the C:\ drive or which ever drive letter has your \Documents and Settings\ folder on and double click to go into the \Documents and Settings\ folder
  3. Double click to go into the \All Users\ folder
  4. Double click to go into the \Application Data\ folder
    [if you can’t see an \Application Data\ folder and the first in the list alphabetically is \Desktop\ then you need to click on Tools in the menu bar, the Folder Options, then click on the View tab and look in the list for “Show hidden files and folders” and select this option, then you should be able to see the \Application Data\ folder although it might look feint or greyed out.
  5. Once in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ folder scroll down and then double click on \Sage\ folder
  6. Double click to go into the \Accounts\ folder
  7. Then depending on when you first setup the account click to go into that year, in my case I have a \2010\ and a \2011\ folder but my data is in the \2010\ folder so double click to go into the year.
  8. You should then see a \Company.000\ folder, I assume that if you have a license for multiple company accounts there may be several of these, one for each company accounts but in my instance I have a single user and single company licence so I just have one \Company.000\ so click to go into that
  9. Once in \Company.000\ click on the \ACCDATA\ folder
  10. Nearly there…. I am now in the following directory:
    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sage\Accounts\2010\Company.000\ACCDATA\
  11. There will be lots of files with a .dta file extension in here, simply scroll down to until you see QUEUE.DTA and select it.
  12. At this point you could (but don’t) ย just delete QUEUE.DTA as this is the file that is locking you out from Sage and will be recreated when you next login and no company information will be lost at all. But rather than just deleting the file, it is better practice to rename this file to something different so that if it does break something, you can rename it back to the original and no harm is done.
  13. Right click on QUEUE.DTA and choose rename.
  14. Type in a new filename, in this case I’ll rename it to QUEUE.DTA.OLD and hit enter.
  15. Now try logging into Sage Account again and you should be all fixed.

62 Replies to “Sage 50 Accounts – Error: Username is in use – the program cannot connect you at this time”

  1. Thank you for the information it helped.
    Best way to find the QUEUE.DTA is to do a search on your C drive for this name and leave it running it will come up with the file and you go and rename it.

    I tried the path given here and managed to come to the Sage \ Accounts but could not find the file. Mind you my sage 50 is 2013 version.

    Best of luck for anyone with similar problem.

  2. Excellent help – spent two hours trying to sort it out but 10 mins of this infor and its sorted!! Many thanks

  3. Hello, can anyone help me? SAGE 50 HR closed down unexpectedly then rebooted computer and when try to open it up, doesn’t ask for my username or password and just ‘The company is currently in use by another user’ but no-one else has SAGE open.

  4. Thank you so much! I had just spent literally hours doing something in Sage I had never done before, then carefully pressed Back Up then— PC crashed. You made this so easy — a million thanks

  5. Power cut caused my lock out. Took me an hour of faffing before finding this site, then only 5 mins to resolve. Brilliant and THANK YOU! Bookmarked for future ref.

  6. Thank you thank you thank you. Kept getting this error and hadnt got a clue. Have VAT return to do and end of year accounts. Was in a right panic! Cant thank you enough

  7. Hi guys i am using sage 50 V10…..
    I have installed it but when im trying to get in it requires me log on name and password….
    i have searched for the above stated file but i couldnt find it in the accounts file……
    and i cant logon ๐Ÿ™ anyone help please

  8. You are an absolute life saver!!!!! Tried everything and looked everywhere only the step by step helped me do it!!! Thank you so much

    1. haha thanks Phil, glad it helped you out. If you’ve ever got a plumber in the Chester area, I’ve got a leak rad that needs a new valve ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. Thank you soooooo much! Found your solution whilst waiting an estimated 15 minutes for the Sage helpdesk. All fixed, and I hung up before my call was answered ….. think I’ll cancel my Sage support!!

  10. AFTER TRYING FOR HOURS TO GET INTO MY ACCOUNTS WITH NO RESULT,
    THEN I FOUND YOU ON THE WEB, WHAT A GODSEND THIS SITE IS, FOLLOWED INSTRUCTIONS AND BINGO, THANK YOU SO MUCH,

  11. This problem has occurred with a customers V8.02 the information re the offending file is correct but the location is wrong its in Program files\sage.
    The easiest way to find & either delete or change is to use Search & change it there.
    Many thanks for the file name

  12. I have just had this issue on a windows 7 machine, as the file structure is slightly different, I searched for the file and found it at this location. I renamed the file and it worked a treat. thank you for this tip

    C:\ProgramData\Sage\Accounts\2011\Company.000\ACCDATA

    Bob

  13. Hi, I’m running V 11.2 Sage Instant Accounts on Win 7. When I closed the business 3 years ago, it was running on Win XP and so the ‘queue.dta’ ‘fix’ – as above – worked every time. Unfortunately, my accountant needed some reports as the taxman is querying something and, on running the .pdf report, he got ‘locked out’. I tried doing the ‘fix’, but no go. The ‘queue.dta’ file is still deleted, but I still get locked out with the error message. Could this be something to do with the fact that it’s running over Win 7 and not Win XP?
    Any help very much appreciated, thanx

  14. First thing on a Monday morning and sage decided to test my patience.
    Very easy and clear instructions and it worked for me.
    Thank you so much ๐Ÿ™‚

  15. Try and download ” Long Path Tool ” is also useful in situations where you see these error messages: Cannot read from source file or disk, there has been a sharing violation, cannot delete file or folder, the file name you specified is not valid or too long, the source or destination file may be in use and many other file managing errors.

  16. WOW THANKS FOR THE QUICK FIX, ALL UP AND RUNNING AGAIN….ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE……I NOW HAVE TO DO SOME WORK!!

  17. Thank you so much for this tip! I somehow got locked out of Sage and this was a life saver!

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  18. Woohoo! Life saver! Nice little quiet time between Xmas and the New Year, turned into a complete waste of time until I found this page! You’re a star. Happy New Year!

  19. Thank you thank you – I’ve spent all evening working on a new client and it crashed due to power failure. This worked.

  20. hi im useing instant accounts im not sure wot think its v14 on an xp machine i have tryed this with the queue.dta but still nothing ๐Ÿ™ sage opens up i get a error sayin sage was not shut down properly and would u like sage to check no files ar damaged then nothing the screen go gray and it crashes i have sys restored re instaled the disk also when i hit cntl alt del it shows nothing in my applications window…… please help

  21. I had a power cut & could not get into my sage 50 2012 I to found as Pronoy says I had to go into Practice scholled down until I found Queue.Data I them right clicked & deleted it Tryed to get into sage & still couldn’t I thought about it for a few minutes then & relised that I still had my 2011 on the desk top tryed to enter it & clouldn’t so I right clicked it & went into properties found ACCDATA click it & scholled down until I found Queue.DTA right clicked it & deleted it it worked .A long way round but it worked thanks to all above

  22. Awesome article!! Felt compelled to leave a message to say thank you for such clear step by step instructions. Worked a charm.

  23. Thankyou so much for the tips on Sage Instant Accounts, I do my hubbys accounts on a saturday, Sage are not there on the phone and the website was down for maintenance – such a life saver!

  24. I am using Sage instant accounts v12.00 in a virtual windows environment on my Mac and have the same problem. Initially the program hangs when started and indicates it is “not responding”. After quitting the program I get the same error message when reopening.

    I have tried the above to no avail. Uninstalled and reinstalled the program and also copied the QUEUE.DTA file from a working version on my laptop but nothing seems to work.

    Anybody got any other suggestions?

  25. Thanks for this! It just got me out of trouble with my copy of Sage Instant Accounts that had thrown its tows out of the pram.

    As other comments suggest, the location of queue.dta may vary so I suggest people do a simple search to locate the file and rename it.

  26. Hi I am using sage v8.2 and yes a windows update occured and shut my computer down when sage was open.
    I am familiar with the queuedta file deletion method, however when I go to the sage folder and then the accounts folder it says file empty whereas usually I get my list of files up which when I scroll down the queuedta folder is there – any suggestions

  27. The technique of deleting the QUEUE.DTA file is fine but the location varies!

    It does not have to be where you said. This is the default for V2010 but for network users, people who have upgraded or are installed on Vista+ operating systems this is not always going to be correct.

    I have a little guide/tool here that will help you find it if it is not in the default location.
    http://www.makingithappen.co.uk/guides/find_data.htm

    For Darryl the solution is to “reindex” and then “compress”, these are in File>Maintenance>

  28. I use sage too. I have a really weird problem where the latest sales order or quote entered does not appear on the sales order list or the quotations list. When you enter a new SO or Quote, the one that was previously missing appears as the latest on the list?!! I have tried Sage support on this, but they say it must be a data issue, and aren’t that helpful about it, as it isn’t a know issue. Saw this article of yours when I googled the problem, and wondered if you might have any ideas, please? Thanks!

  29. Hi. The solution might work with earlier virsions but in Sage 50 2011 the path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sage\Accounts\2011\Practice. If u try to rename QUEUE.DATA AS QUEUE.DATA.OLD- it will ask the file might become unusable if you rename it.

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