Working copy XXX locked and cleanup failed in SVN

Question

I get this error when I do an svn update:

Working copy XXXXXXXX locked Please execute \"Cleanup\" command

When I

Answer 1

I had this problem where the "clean up" worked, but the "update" would continue to fail. The solution that worked was to delete the folder in question via Windows Explorer, not TortoiseSVN's delete (which marks the deletion as something to commit to the repository, and then I did a "checkout" to essentially "update" the folder from the respository.

More info on the difference between an O/S delete and an SVN delete here: http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-dug-rename.html

Notably:

When you TortoiseSVN → Delete a file, it is removed from your working copy immediately as well as being marked for deletion in the repository on next commit.

And:

If a file is deleted via the explorer instead of using the TortoiseSVN context menu, the commit dialog shows those files and lets you remove them from version control too before the commit. However, if you update your working copy, Subversion will spot the missing file and replace it with the latest version from the repository.