Sharpoint Docs opened through internet exploerer open as read only

Question

When opening word documents in SharePoint in word the document is opened as read-only and a selection of errors pop up when I click edit document from:

The file is checked out

Cannot access network location

"Unknown error trying to lock-file"

when I check out the document in SharePoint first then click the 3 dots and open it then it opens fine. but when I check it out on SharePoint and click the filename on SharePoint it still opens as read-only.

When opening through chrome it works fine but the company relies on internet explorer and using chrome for this chrome wont work for them.

the company also regularly uses file explorer view over the web view so individually going into the options on each document to check it out then open it is a lot of hassle and from what I hear doesn't work with the way they use file explorer to manage many documents at once.

This is a recent issue I would guess at happening in the last couple of days.

As a side note I have tried repairing office but it did nothing

Answer 1

Not a problem. Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I tested this with the documents being checked in with no one using them. One was even copied and tried with the same results and no one had even accessed it yet.

Every word document tried had the results and had some form of the 36 characters removed from the path when compared to the  edge and chrome versions.

As a side note if it helps it did seem to happen around the time of a windows update on tuesday the 19th (i believe it was a security update) I can't confirm if this update was pushed out at the time by ourselves or not (normally we hold off on updates initially)

Answer 2

Hi Gaza,

Thanks for your reply and sorry for my delay.

I test from my side and when I check out a Word document, it is also opened in edit view but not read-only view.

One situation that the document prevents me from editing from my side is that I open the document in Word Online and keep it there, when I open it in Word local application, it doesn't allow me to click the enable editing to edit it because there is one user who is editing the document, so other users are locked to edit. Have you checked this?

In addition, I want to confirm if the issue only happens with one specific document or all documents.

Best Regards,

Gloria

Answer 3

Once it opens in word. We click the enable editing box and an error comes up. error changes from time to time but the result is not being able to edit.

This is one of the error messages

When the word document is checked out in sharepoint first it opens fine in the normal mode without having to enable editing

https://<Tennant name>.sharepoint.com/sites/Cleachdadh-Gaidhlig/Faidhlaichean/Planaichean%20G%C3%A0idhlig/Sti%C3%B9ireadh%20Phlanaichean%20G%C3%A0idhlig/Dreachd%20Stiuireadh/Dreachd%20sti%C3%B9ireadh%202018.docx?d=w730acbed04194d08910e7ab0561f5548

https://<Tennant name>.sharepoint.com/sites/Cleachdadh-Gaidhlig/Faidhlaichean/Planaichean%20G%C3%A0idhlig/Sti%C3%B9ireadh%20Phlanaichean%20G%C3%A0idhlig/Dreachd%20Stiuireadh/Dreachd%20sti%C3%B9ireadh%202018.docx

Answer 4

Hi Gaza,

I want to confirm the whole steps with you and I can test from my side.

To better understand your situation, please help confirm the information at your convenience:

1. Do you get the error message when you open the Word document in Word local application or Word Online?
2. Please capture a screenshot of the error message to share with me.
3. Did you do all the steps when the Word document was checked out?
4. For the two links you share, could you please share the whole links with me? (remove your tenant name)

In addition, the View in File Explorer feature is only available in Internet Explorer.

I want to test it and find if there are any workarounds for you or it is an expected behavior.

Best Regards,

Gloria

Answer 5

As a help to anyone else with this problem it appears to be a IE problem.

When looking at the file location on IE sharpoint you get the link

https://etc.docx

but on edge and chrome you get

https://etc.docx?d=w730acbed04194d08910e7ab0561f5548

this seems to mean Internet explorer deliberately changes this switch at the end. all documents have 36 characters after the docx on edge and chrome and IE doesn't

Will try changing the windows default app for browsing for opening through file explorer  but this is not ideal