Excel VBA writes data to second workbook, but starts opening read-only versions because " _ is already open - vba

Question

I have some VBA script in one Excel Workbook that has three subs that each either read from a second Workbook. Each of the subs uses the following algorithm (simplified to distill the interaction with the second book):
Public Sub EditRemote()
Dim remoteDataSheet As Worksheet
Dim source As String 'Source worksheet name
Dim target As String 'Target worksheet name
Dim path As String
Dim wkbName As String
source = "CountData"
path = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Parameters").Range("B2").Value
wkbName = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Parameters").Range("A2").Value
target = "CountData"
Application.EnableCancelKey = xlDisabled
Set localDataSheet = ThisWorkbook.Sheets(source)
If Not WorkbookIsOpen(wkbName) Then
Workbooks.Open (path)
End If
Set remoteDataSheet = Workbooks(wkbName).Sheets(source)
remoteDataSheet.Cells(1,1) = localDataSheet.Cells(1,1)
remoteDataSheet.Cells(1,2) = localDataSheet.Cells(1,2)
Workbooks(wkbName).Close SaveChanges:=True
End Sub
Function WorkbookIsOpen(targetWorkbook As String) As Boolean
Dim testBook As Workbook
On Error Resume Next
Set testBook = Workbooks(targetWorkbook)
If Err.Number = 0 Then
WorkbookIsOpen = True
Else:
WorkbookIsOpen = False
End If
End Function
There is also a pivot table in this Workbook that draws its data from the second file though an external data connection as well. The issue that is plaguing me is that it seems that not initially but after a few operations, these subs stop making the edits properly and instead it opens a read only copy of the second Workbook. When I try to open the second workbook manually I get a message saying that the file is already open and is locked for editing. Right now both files are local to my computer and couldn't be opened by anyone else. What am I missing to be sure that I can make the code work as intended?

Answer 1

I made some modification to your code, ran it a few times, and didn't get your "Read-only" message.
In your code the line of declaring localDataSheet is missing, added Dim localDataSheet As Worksheet , also added Dim remoteWb As Workbook for the remote workbook.
(didn't modify your Funtion WorkbookIsOpen code).
Sub EditRemote Code
Option Explicit
Public Sub EditRemote()
Dim remoteDataSheet As Worksheet
Dim localDataSheet As Worksheet
Dim source As String 'Source worksheet name
Dim target As String 'Target worksheet name
Dim path As String
Dim wkbName As String
Dim remoteWb As Workbook
source = "CountData"
path = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Parameters").Range("B2").Value
wkbName = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Parameters").Range("A2").Value
target = "CountData"
Application.EnableCancelKey = xlDisabled
Set localDataSheet = ThisWorkbook.Sheets(source)
' check if workbbok already open
If Not WorkbookIsOpen(wkbName) Then
Set remoteWb = Workbooks.Open(path)
Else
Set remoteWb = Workbooks(wkbName) ' workbook is open >> set remoteWb accordingly
End If
Set remoteDataSheet = remoteWb.Sheets(source)
remoteDataSheet.Cells(1, 1) = localDataSheet.Cells(1, 1)
remoteDataSheet.Cells(1, 2) = localDataSheet.Cells(1, 2)
Workbooks(wkbName).Close SaveChanges:=True
End Sub
Just to verify the data in your Excel "Parameters" sheet, the screen-shot below shows the data I used for my testing.
Cell A2 contains the "Clean" workbook name.
Cell B2 contains workbbok "full" name - path + "clean" workbook name.

Answer 2

After some further testing to diagnose the issue, I found that there was nothing wrong with the VBA code, but rather the external data connection to the remote Workbook was locking that Workbook every time I refreshed the data in the pivot table that used the external data connection as its source. It isn't unlocking the file when it is done refreshing, and that leaves the file locked until I close the Workbook with the pivot table. Now I just need to solve that problem.