SharePoint Library - Document Locked for shared use error

Question

Good morning all,

(I am aware there are similar posts around this topic as i've been googling for over a month now, without a solution - this is an attempt to reignite the discussion with Microsoft)

I work as part of the NHS and we've been building a controlled document management system using SharePoint Online libraries. Everything works great: permissions, access, visibility, version control etc... However, around 50% of the time, a newly created file will become Locked for shared use by the creating user and the error will display when trying to update the metadata.

To be clear, the file can be edited and renamed without issue. (I understand the lock file state is ignored for certain actions)

Trouble Shooting:

Deleting the file and restoring it does not clear the lock and on deletion the following is displayed:

Checking out the file gives the following error:

Opening the file in the web browser and closing does not resolve the error.

Opening the file and closing in the Desktop app does not resolve the error.

Closing all browser and Word desktop app windows does not resolve the error.

The only apparent solution is to wait for the lock to be lifted - the time that this takes varies wildly.

Can anyone advise how to navigate this. Again, it happens without rhyme or reason, there is no obvious pattern. The example file above was created immediately after a file that didn't have this error. I keep changing variables to see what triggers it and what could resolve it, but no luck!

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.

[PII is removed by Tina Chen MSFT]

Answer 1

Hello Dan,

I'm sorry to hear that you've been experiencing this issue with SharePoint Online libraries. This error message usually occurs when a file is being edited by another user or when the file is open in another program.

I checked the troubleshooting information you provided. To my knowledge, you have checked all the possible troubleshooting steps, I'm afraid this issue needs to be investigated from the backend side via remote assistance and collect the background logs.

As this Forum community has limited resources, the backend support team there has more permission than us, they have more resources to investigate the issue from the backend, they have Escalate channel to escalate your issue to check more and collect log reports for the root cause.

In this situation, we sincerely recommend that your Microsoft 365 admin, can follow the steps in this article and create a support ticket to contact Microsoft online support.

Note: To create a support ticket, you need to have Microsoft 365 admin privileges.

Reference: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

Please accept my apologies for redirecting you to the related team support, as the moderators in this community have limited resources to verify the backend information and to get the quick and better assistance, we requested for this.

Your understanding and patience are greatly appreciated. Have a great day!!

Sincerely,

Tina | Microsoft Community Moderator