Locking and Unlocking Objects

You can lock objects to prevent other users from modifying them. Then, you can unlock them to allow modifications by other users.

For more information about a particular command, see the specific command documentation.

Required access roles: Reader, Contributor, Author, Leader, Owner. For more information, see Collaborative Lifecycle Access to Content.

See Also
About Locks
  1. Open an object.
  2. In the tree, select one or several objects.
  3. From the Collaboration section of the action bar, click Lock or Unlock .

    Tip: You can also modify the lock status directly from the Compass.

  4. To lock or unlock the object, select the Reference option. To lock or unlock the usage of the object in the structure, select the Instance option.

    Notes:
    • These options might not be displayed depending on the context and the object type. In that case, the object (reference) is locked.
    • The Instance or Reference option might be initially selected based on your previous selection.
    • When you select an aggregated representation, it is locked/unlocked as requested, regardless of the option you select.

  5. Click OK.
    The objects are locked or unlocked, and their status is updated.

    When performing lock or unlock from Search results, the lock status is not updated in the tab. Refresh the Search results to display the updated lock status.

    Important:
    • If the object you selected contains multiple objects, and one or several (but not all) are locked by another user, a dialog box appears to indicate which objects you can lock and which objects you cannot lock. If you click Ok, the objects that you can lock are locked.
    • When the Lock or Unlock command is started from a read-only authoring tab, you need to explicitly open or explore the object to get the tree icon updated.
    • The Unlock command removes the temporary lock that is applied on objects when they are switched to edit mode. For more information, see Managing Editability.

    Important: When you try to lock an object that is opened by another user at the same time, and that has already been modified and saved by this other user, a dialog box appears to show you the list of modified objects and let you refresh them before locking:
    • If you select the Refresh before locking option and click Ok, the objects are refreshed before the lock operation is applied to them.
    • If you clear the Refresh before locking option and click Ok, the objects are not refreshed, but the lock operation is still applied to them.

      A warning message appears at the same time as the lock success message to let you know that changes will not be saved.

    • If you click Cancel, the objects are refreshed and the lock operation is not applied to them.
  6. Optional: Go to Me > Preferences > Customize and choose in the commands tab, All Commands > Massive Unlock to add this command to the action bar.
    Launching this command at the root of the selected object allows you to unlock the entire structure under this root. A dialog box appears listing all the items that are going to be unlocked.
    Note: Launching the Massive Unlock command is the only way to unlock Documents and VPM Documents.