FYI: I opened a ticket with Microsoft support over this issue expecting that it will be affecting us a lot next month during our busy season. Our users get tripped up a lot with this if they open from SharePoint into Word Online and then choose to Edit in
Word.
I was given some suggestions on ways to work with files that would prevent locking:
- Right click or select and choose open in Word (eliminate the step of opening in Word Online)
- Pin the folder location where the files are saved in SharePoint into the Word client. Open directly from the Word client.
- Check out the files to work with them, and then check them back in.
We were also told that if a file has a lock that absolutely will not release, to download a copy of the file to work with it and then re-upload it when finished.
Not a concrete solution, but some helpful tips from Microsoft. Maybe it will prevent a headache for one of you. Here's hoping they hear our loud and frequent complaining on this issue!