File is controlled by another user
Why it happens:
When Blue Ribbon is running, there are some temporary “lock” files that are created that keep two concurrent users from accessing and changing the same record at the same time. Two people can use Blue Ribbon at the same time, you just can’t be in Johnny Smith’s record at the same time. Normally, when the last (or only) user exits from Blue Ribbon, those files are deleted automatically by the program.
However, sometimes funky things happen with computers. They creatively decide to shut themselves off, the lights go out, Blue Ribbon locks up and you ctl-alt-delete out of it, the auto-update thing happens, whatever. If BR doesn’t get shut down in the “normal” way, sometimes those files are not deleted. At that point, nobody can get into the program.
How to fix it:
This is lots shorter than the explanation. Go to your Data folder, and open it. Look for any files that end in “.lck” or ".net"—there may be 2 or 3 of them. Delete those files only. Once the files have been deleted, BR will work normally again.