Check In / Check-out bar missing

Question

We are testing Sharepoint online bundled with Office 365 and have run into a strange issue. We have some XLSX documents in a library and the library is set to require check-out/check-in. Using a couple different accounts, we click on one of the files and it opens in the browser fine. Then we choose "Edit Workbook > Edit in Browser" and a yellow message bar appears at the top of the document with a Check-out button. This is great, that's what we want to happen. But for all other accounts this bar never appears and we get the following message:

Unable to edit Workbook

In order to edit workbooks in this Folder they must first be checked out. To edit this workbook, check out the workbook in the Folder to the server (not to your local drafts folder) and then try to edit it in Excel Online again.

Now, going the long way to check out the file works fine for all accounts - Document Library, More > Advanced > Check Out. But this is way too cumbersome and users are never going to do that for every document they want to edit. 

I've verified that every account used has full permissions to the library, I've tried both E1 and E3 licenses (even though they both have Office Online in the licensing), I've tried it in IE, Chrome, and Firefox with the same results. 

I'm at a loss here. Has anyone else ever seen this before or have any clues as to how we can simplify this process?

Answer 1

Hi Keith,

How do you set the “require check-out/check-in” setting? Have you set it via LIBRARY>Library Settings>Version Settings>Require Check Out>Yes? If yes, I’d like to explain that the yellow message letting users select Check Out in a file before editing it will only appear in Excel not Excel Online. Please confirm if you see the yellow message in Excel. If you get the error messages in Excel Online, it is a normal behavior. You need to check out the file first and then edit it in Excel Online. If you see the yellow message in Excel Online, could you give us some related screenshots?

If you want to check out multiple files once, I suggest you use the Site Content and Structure feature.

You need to active SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure in Site collection features under Site Collection Administration to enable the feature.

After activing SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure, you will see the feature available under Site Administration.

Then you can check out multiple files via Site Content and Structure>Select the library where files you want to check out are>Select the files once>Drop down Actions>Click Check Out.

Please let us know your updates at your convenience.

Thanks,

Cliff

Answer 2

That is how I set the check-out / check-in requirement, and you are probably right about not being able to have that work with Office Online. I smell a feature request :)

I decided to instead have the users browse to the SharePoint library via the Open File list within Excel. It's a bit easier that way anyway.

Answer 3

Yes, this Error message pop-up when the file is opened using Edit Workbook -> Edit in Excel Web App.

Answer 4

Hi Suryanarayana,

As Cliff mentioned in his post, the behaviors for opening a check out required file are different.

One library is set to check out file before editing:

Choose to open in Excel

We can get a yellow pop-up which asked us to check out that file. After clicking the Check Out button, we are able to edit that file.

Choose to open in Excel Online

We will get the error message which asks us to firstly check out the file. We cannot directly check out the file in Excel Online. We suggest you vote this feedback in Excel Online Uservoice. This is the best way to let our related team hear your voice. Thanks for your understanding.

 

If anything is misunderstood, just let me know.

Regards,

Tim