You receive a “ is locked for editing by ‘another user'” message when you try to modify a document in Windows SharePoint Services even though you are the user who previously opened the document

SYMPTOMS

Consider the following scenario. In Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, you connect to a document library. Then, you click Edit in ProgramName to open and modify a document in the document library. The document opens in the program as expected. However, an issue occurs and the program unexpectedly quits or crashes. After the program quits, you connect to the document library again. Then, you click Edit in ProgramName to open and modify the same document.

In this scenario, the document does not open as expected. Instead, you receive the following message in a File in Use dialog box:

FileName is locked for editing by ‘another user’.

Do you want to:

Open a Read Only copy
Create a local copy and merge your changes later
Receive notification when the original copy is available

You receive this message even though you are the user who previously opened the document.

CAUSE

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 user who previously opened the document.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, wait 10 minutes before you click Edit in ProgramName to open the document again.

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