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Can you force a user to close out of a file in a co-authored file?

Graeme Tucker (SHIPLEY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT) 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff
2024-06-21T19:05:15.4133333+00:00

Is there a way to force other users to close out of a file in the co-authoring environment?

We often have users "camp out" in our collaborative files - which affects file performance and formatting stability. (Sometimes they are in there for days and we cannot contact them to close out.)

I asked this in the MS Community forum and got this response (however, neither of these methods will help our situation):

Based on my test, you can select check out or check in to stop the document co-authoring. Reference: Check out or check in files in a document library - Microsoft Support. Or you can stop sharing the file to manage access then re-share the file to these users. Reference: Stop sharing OneDrive or SharePoint files or folders, or change permissions - Microsoft Support

Thanks in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | SharePoint | For business | Windows

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  1. Ling Zhou_MSFT 23,675 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff
    2024-06-24T02:42:37.06+00:00

    Hi @Graeme Tucker (SHIPLEY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT),

    Thank you for posting in this community.

    I apologize and empathize that you are having problems. It is true that co-authoring allows multiple users to co-edit a document but sometimes it can make the document messy.

    However, this is a default feature in SharePoint Online and we have no way to turn it off for now.

    • As long as a user has Edit and above access to a file, they can co-edit the document, so regranting access doesn't solve the problem unless you set the user permissions to below Edit.
    • Setting up file checkout is a widely used method to prevent file co-editing. This is because only checked-out users can edit the document, while other users can only read the document. User's image

    We are always looking for ways to improve SharePoint, and your feedback and suggestions are very valuable. We suggest that you make further suggestions on this SharePoint Feedback portal regarding the management of the co-authoring function. Your contribution will be highly appreciated.

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  2. Oliver Seifert 0 Reputation points
    2026-01-14T11:54:33.8633333+00:00

    Would be great to add an option to simply force people closing a document - even if they are not in front of it. Not for all people but at least should be possible for the Owner of a channel. This would be pretty much it - have seen the issue as well many times and it is mainly they keep it open and focus on something else. It is not about removing access in general from my pov.

    Thanks a lot in advance - and maybe an idea for a feature request.