This document is locked for editing by another user

Question

I am using sharepoint 2010 for my company. The endusers are working on there desktop which is OS "Windows 7". The browser version is IE8. The office tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint are version "Office 2010". Sometimes there are some documents locked. But the last user which was opened this document has closed this document. The document is also not checked out.

Why other users get this error when opening the document?

This document is locked for editing by another user

Answer 1

When a document is opened by a client program, Windows SharePoint Services puts a write lock on the document on the server. The write lock times out after 10 minutes. Users cannot modify the document during the time when the document is locked.

In a scenario where the program that opens the document unexpectedly quits or crashes and you try to open the document again before the write lock times out, the message that you receive says that the document is locked by another user. This behavior occurs even though you are a user who previously opened the document.

I think this KB article can help you:

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

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/313472

Answer 2

I found another answer to this problem when I encountered it today. In my situation it claimed the file was locked by my own account.

Waiting 10 minutes and even rebooting my computer didn't help.

Here's what did:

1. Save a copy of the locked file locally somewhere so you don't lose any changes. (Just to be safe)
2. Open MS Office Upload Center (likely an icon in your system tray)
3. Change the filter to "All Cached Files"
4. Right click on the file that you are having trouble with and select "Discard"
5. Confirm prompt "Are you sure you want to remove this file from the Office Document Cache?"

File should now be unlocked.

Note: I don't think this will work unless you do it on the computer that locked the file.