Clearing short term file lock

Question

I've come up against a problem I've been unable to solve, and based on my 2 days of Binging around, I've yet to find a solution to fix the problem the same with a slew of others. I've got several files in a couple document libraries in a MOSS 2007 site collection that are locked by someone when they no longer have the file checked out. This is preventing others from updating the file or deleting it and replacing it.

SharePoint Manager shows it is checked out by a user and the short term lock on the file is always changing. It will say it is set to expire on 8/8/12 11:00 PM then coming in this morning when the lock should hgave expired, it is extended to 1:05 pm today. This has been going on for several days.

• I've tried taking ownership of the file - this failes as the item doesn't show as being check out.
• I've tried to delete it in SPD as some posts reference - doesn't work, and says it's checked out
• I've tried checking it out and checking it in via content and structure, fails to release the lock.
• We've had the user check the document out and check it back it, this has not cleared the lock.

Is there something that can be done to clear this file lock? These are critical documents being affected by this. Can Powershell clear those values so the file can be edited?

Answer 1

Office has to be continuing to extend that short term lock. You may check if this is the issue: http://paulliebrand.com/2008/01/04/document-is-locked-for-editing/ or check this http://paulliebrand.com/2010/04/12/document-is-locked-for-editing-part-2/

So as listed in part two, you can monitor on the workstation to see what may be keeping that short term lock open.

Let me know if this doesn't help. Then you have to get into much more complicated methods to clear the lock.

Answer 2

In short, whenever a user has the document open, it locks the file. When that same user has Word lock up or he has it open in the background it will lock that file. The lock will refresh everytime that same user will try to access it again. The user needs to stay out of the file for 10 minutes.

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899709

1. Check whether the file has been properly checked in or not. If not, refresh the page and try to check in the file again.

2. Delete the local copy of the file present in the cache folder of the concerned user account (access to user’s PC required).

3. Close all the instances of file type opened in the system. E.g. if the file type is excel, then close all the excel files currently opened.

4. Also kill the file type service (excel in this case) using the task manager.

Source: http://www.techtimepiece.com/2012/04/sharepoint-error-file-is-locked-for.html

When things get tough, my resolution usually is sometimes an IISReset.