For months a client and I have had trouble exchanging QB files.  We only need to file to go one direction, so I can prepare a tax return, so that eliminates one source of frustration.

Anyway, the client follows the instructions for sending a file from the Mac to a Windows computer.  I get the .qbb and .dmg files, but when I try to restore I always, without fail, get the following message:

• Company file in use.  Please wait.

Followed a few seconds later by:

• Another QuickBooks user (Unknown user) is currently performing a task which must finish before you can continue.  QuickBooks will continue automatically when the other uer's task has completed.
  
  We recommend that you continue to wait for the other user to finish.  You can, however, press the ESC key to quit QuickBooks rather than keep working.  If you choose to quit, QuickBooks will close your data file and shut down.

(What the messages don't say is that if I want to start QB again I have to go to Windows Explorer and double-click on a QB file, or else the same messages pop up again because it tries to default to the last file I had open even if it never opened.)

Anyway, I've done plenty of searching and can't find this issue addressed anywhere.  Are we missing a step?  Is my client doing something wrong in preparing the file (this person is quite intelligent and knows how to follow instructions, so if that's the case it likely means the instructions are wrong)?  Is it an error message, like those I associate with another major software publisher, that says one thing but means something completely different?