What does "locked for Shared Use" mean, exactly?

Anonymous
2018-01-25T16:34:28+00:00

I've got a file in a SharePoint library that I'm trying to move to a new folder in the same library. But no matter how I try to move it, I get a message that "this file is locked for shared use," by me. But I didn't do anything to lock the file.

How did it get locked, and more importantly, how do I unlock it? Properties, Details, and similar have been unhelpful, and the old turn it off and turn it on again didn't work either.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-02-01T17:34:01+00:00

    Hi Tisky--thanks for the follow-up.

    I just checked. We were able to move the file today without having done the above steps. 

    Can you tell us why a file would spontaneously become "locked for shared use" in a library that doesn't doesn't require check-out, and when a team member didn't check the file out in the first place?

    Thanks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-02-02T15:46:06+00:00

    Hi Jeff,

    The root cause may different even when the symptoms are the same. Glad to hear that the problem is gone, if you have any problem in the future, please feel free to post back.

    Regards,

    Tisky

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-07-29T01:04:58+00:00

    But please do repro this issue on your end and respond.  This is a very common issue with my users too.  There is not predictability.

    It can happen to any file, not a specific file.

    it can happen even with your own name on it. And you havent checked out the file.

    I have tried to explitily check out, and it allows you to check out - which alone is counter-intuitive.

    Clearing cache doesnt do anything.

    So, as of now, there is no way to fix the error.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-08-01T21:00:44+00:00

    Hi JishNath,

    Thanks for sharing your experience with us. We'd like to explain that since the problem in original post has gone, and we focus on one problem in each thread, we suggest you post a new thread in our forum for the specific assistance.

    Thanks for your understanding.

    Tisky

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-12-12T16:08:05+00:00

    Zheng, It would be more helpful if you could at least suggest other resources where this question might be answered.  It is rather frustrating to receive no assistance at all, when the question is quite clear and is obviously affecting a significant number of people. 

    At a minimum, perhaps you could include a links to forums that *might* have an answer?  Or perhaps even do a quick search yourself and post a link to an answer or a quick statement like "I could not find anything in our forums, so I've created a new question for you.  Here is the link..."

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