17 Jul 2019

Lock files with check out / check in

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If enabled by the Site Administrator, any user with Add File rights (or greater) to a folder can 'check out' sub-folders from that folder.

If file-level security has been enabled and a file has more restricted permissions, the user may not be able to check out that file.

While checked out, the file is locked and no one else can edit or add a new version of that file; the Add version/draft action menu is replaced with the Check out menu.

Normally, only the user who checked out a file can check it back in (or cancel the check out), although a Site or Content Administrator can cancel a check out if necessary.

Once a file has been checked back in it is considered a new version.

To start, click More Actions for the file and click Check out:

The Check out page will be displayed:

Click Check out to download the file to your computer. The Check out button will now change to Check in. Click Close to return to the list of files.

A user will be notified if a file has an unpublished draft version. They will be given further options, such as Check out draft, Resume editing draft and Delete draft.

Locked File

If the file has been checked out, any other user with edit rights can click the Checked out option on the actions menu:

To display the Checked Out screen:

This page details who has checked out the page and that another user cannot check out the file or edit the file's metadata. The file can still be downloaded, previewed and comments can be added to the file.

Check in a file

Make any changes that a required to the file and when the file is ready to be added back, click File actions and Check in:

The Check In page is now displayed. Click Check In:

The Add new version screen will be displayed:

Fill out the required details, which are identical to the regular Add new version page. Click Add to create and unlock a new version of the file.

Alternatively, if the user who checked out the file does not wish to add a new version, they can click Cancel checkout on the Check in page to release the lock.

Administrators and checked out files

If a file is Checked out an Administrator can still delete or move that file.

If an Administrator attempts to Check out an already checked out file, they have the option to cancel the previous Check out.

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