Sharepoint 2016 co-authoring not working

Romila baretto 141 Reputation points
2021-10-08T10:33:59.307+00:00

Hi ,

Co-authoring suddenly stopped working and it gives a locked out error for multiple users while editing a powerpoint file.

Error is " The file is locked for editing by username ".

Do you want to view a read only copy?

Edit the file and merge the changes with the server when it becomes available.

All users editing the file have the same version of powerpoint installed
Cleared upload center( no items cached)
Cleared officefilecache as well but no luck.

Please advise

SharePoint Server Management
SharePoint Server Management
SharePoint Server: A family of Microsoft on-premises document management and storage systems.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. Allen Xu_MSFT 13,776 Reputation points
    2021-10-11T02:10:14.177+00:00

    Hi @Romila baretto ,

    A file lock can be removed via Powershell on an on-premises installation of SharePoint 2016.

    • How can this happen?

    Files can get locked when a client application fails to update the server-side file token that indicates whether a file is currently being edited. (This type of lock is application-specific, and thus different from the explicit Check In/Check Out functionality provided by SharePoint document libraries.) This scenario comes up when computers (or applications) crash unexpectedly, or get disconnected from the network.

    With Office products, the file lock is supposed to expire automatically after ten minutes, and this is usually the case. Sometimes a lock seems to persist, which may be the result of browser caching problems or bugs in the way client applications handle the file locks.

    • How can we fix it?

    The Powershell for removing a file lock is as follows, run it using the SharePoint Mangement Shell as an aministrator:

    $web = get-spweb "http://sp/sitename/"  
$list = $web.Lists["LibraryName"]  
$item = $list.Items.GetItemById(2)  
$item.File.ReleaseLock($item.File.LockId)  
$web.Dispose()

    Replace the placeholders with values appropriate to your environment/list/document; use the actual subsite URL in the get-spweb cmdlet, use the library's title to retrieve it from the $web.Lists collection, and use the actual ID of the problem document as the parameter in GetItemById().

    • Use impersonation if necessary to release the lock If you run the above Powershell and still run up against an error like this:

    Exception calling "ReleaseLock" with "1" argument(s): "The file XXXXXXX is locked for exclusive use by XXXXX"

    You can try using impersonation to release the lock. This is accomplished by using the LockedByUser property of the file to get a reference to the user you need to impersonate, then creating a new SPSite object instance passing in that user's token as a second parameter.

    $web = get-spweb "http://sp/sitename/"  
$list = $web.Lists["LibraryName"]  
$item = $list.Items.GetItemById(2)  

$userId = $item.File.LockedByUser.ID  
$user = $web.AllUsers.GetById($userId)  

$impSite = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($web.Url, $user.UserToken);  
$impWeb = $impSite.OpenWeb();  
$impList = $impWeb.Lists[$list.Title];  
$impItem = $impList.GetItemById($item.ID);  
$impItem.File.ReleaseLock($impItem.File.LockId)  

$impWeb.Dispose()  
$impSite.Dispose()  
$web.Dispose()

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