can we force unlock the file before creating a new version of it inside Power Automate

Question

We have a flow which create a new file as follow (this will create a new version of the file, by replacing existing file):-

and we set the following setting for the create a new file action:-

when the flow run, sometimes it raise this error "The file ***** is locked for shared use by ***":-

{"statusCode":400,"headers":{"Vary":"Origin","X-SharePointHealthScore":"3","X-MS-SPConnector":"1","X-SP-SERVERSTATE":"ReadOnly=0","DATASERVICEVERSION":"3.0","SPClientServiceRequestDuration":"35","X-DataBoundary":"None","X-1DSCollectorUrl":"https://mobile.events.data.microsoft.com/OneCollector/1.0/","X-AriaCollectorURL":"https://browser.pipe.aria.microsoft.com/Collector/3.0/","SPRequestGuid":"c4f55cdf-f772-45fc-b018-3abf500128cc","request-id":"c4f55cdf-f772-45fc-b018-3abf500128cc","MS-CV":"31z1xHL3/EWwGDq/UAEozA.0","Strict-Transport-Security":"max-age=31536000","X-FRAME-OPTIONS":"SAMEORIGIN","Content-Security-Policy":"frame-ancestors 'self' teams.microsoft.com *.teams.microsoft.com *.skype.com *.teams.microsoft.us local.teams.office.com *.powerapps.com *.yammer.com *.officeapps.live.com *.office.com .stream.azure-test.net .microsoftstream.com .dynamics.com .microsoft.com;","MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices":"16.0.0.22713","X-Content-Type-Options":"nosniff","X-MS-InvokeApp":"1; RequireReadOnly","Timing-Allow-Origin":"","x-ms-apihub-cached-response":"true","x-ms-apihub-obo":"true","Cache-Control":"max-age=0, private","Date":"Tue, 26 Jul 2022 14:44:44 GMT","P3P":"CP="ALL IND DSP COR ADM CONo CUR CUSo IVAo IVDo PSA PSD TAI TELo OUR SAMo CNT COM INT NAV ONL PHY PRE PUR UNI"","X-AspNet-Version":"4.0.30319","X-Powered-By":"ASP.NET","Content-Length":"348","Content-Type":"application/json","Expires":"Mon, 11 Jul 2022 14:44:44 GMT","Last-Modified":"Tue, 26 Jul 2022 14:44:44 GMT"},"body":{"status":400,"message":"The file https://********.sharepoint.com/sites/CMS/Contracts/612/-Entity Consultancy Contract.docx is locked for shared use by hahmed@.org [membership].\r\nclientRequestId: c4f55cdf-f772-45fc-b018-3abf500128cc\r\nserviceRequestId: c4f55cdf-f772-45fc-b018-3abf500128cc"}}

any advice how we can avoid this error permanently ? For example, can we force unlock the file before creating a new version of it?

Answer 1

I don't think you can force unlock the file. What I have done in these situations is to put the action in a Do Until loop and use Run After checking to see if the action failed. The setup goes like this:

Initiate a variable to False
Do Until variable is True
   Create File action
   Delay 5 minutes - Run after Create File = Failed or Timed Out
   set variable to True - Run after Delay action is skipped

So, if the file creation succeeds, the Delay step is skipped, the variable is set to TRUE and the flow continues.

If, however, the file is locked and causes the Create File action to fail, the next action is a 5 minute delay, and the variable stays at FALSE. After 5 minutes, the Create File action is attempted again. Rinse and repeat.