Forcing SharePoint to unlock a file

[annetoal]

Has anyone out there had any experience with inserting a PowerShell script into a Flow, for the purposes of forcing a locked file in SharePoint to be unlocked? What issues spring to mind? I'm assuming a service account would have to be created and given privileges necessary for the script. Were you able to execute a script from within a Flow? Was it possible to feed output from the script back into the Flow?

Have you ever used the send an HTTP request to unlock a file in SharePoint? Would you please share any examples or hints to get me started?

@Pstork1 @Expiscornovus 

Thanks,

Anne

[Pstork1]

Is it locked because its being edited? Or is it Checked out? There is a Discard Checkout action, but there is no way to unlock a file that is locked for editing by another user.

[annetoal]

@Pstork1  It's open for editing on someone's computer. Sometimes, a user will close a file but SharePoint won't unlock the file. Most times it resolves itself within 10 minutes, but occasionally, it stays locked no matter what. In cases like that I would like to be able to force SharePoint to unlock the file. I've found some PS code that checks for a locked file but it doesn't actually force it to unlock.

That's why I wanted to hear from people who have a lot more experience in this area, to see what you've done when faced with the same problem.

Thanks,

Anne

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

If its locked because its open for editing then the only way to unlock it is to close and save the file.  There is a delay because it remains cached on the local computer and that can keep it open for 15-30 minutes. There is no way to force the file to unlock.

Recommending that the user's use the web based office apps will help. They allow better co-authoring and the locks clear faster.

[annetoal · Accepted solution]

It's an ongoing problem. I will keep the web apps recommendation in mind and mark your reply as a solution on the strength of it. However, it's not the complete solution. I should clarify that sometimes the file lock never clears at all. And in my experience, using the desktop app, and forcing users to do a File->Save->Close is sometimes helpful. But again it seems awfully unreliable, and I think Microsoft has work to do in this area.
SharePoint used to be a system where you had to check something out to edit it, and when they added support for collaborative editing, in my opinion they introduced some problems in the file locks area.

Thanks for weighing in on the subject.

Anne

[Pstork1]

I don't disagree, but its been that way for years and I don't see it changing anytime soon.  You can still require checkout in a SharePoint document library. But the problem isn't actually a SharePoint problem. Its an Office application issue.  You will see the same behavior if you are using the file system connector to access a file stored on a network drive.

[jonoogle]

We can't use web apps, as we use macros to do a lot of processing. We have had cases where the file lock doesn't disappear. We have deleted cached files, we have rebooted PC's to no avail. 

This has been a cause of numerous issues having us do all sorts of workarounds in flows that are accessing these files. 

I think MS should do a lot more work in understanding and fixing these problems.

[jonoogle]

We can't use web-based apps because we use macros in Excel. And sometimes the files NEVER get unlocked. This has been a forever issue  that MS should address.

[Cellcon]

The Web Apps are not a solution. We have the same problem, the files quite often never get unlocked, although we are using the web apps exclusively.

[JimiBest]

People using the web-based office apps are WHY files are getting locked in the first place.

[JimiBest]

The most common source we see of files getting locked, is somebody opens a file for 10-15 seconds to get a quick browse/preview, and then closes it. Despite no changes being made, the file gets locked.  
Having files open read only, until the end user mechanically enables editing (by default) would prevent a lot of file lock issues.

[WillDrotar]

Who is "they" we need to ask them to get out of the file? How do we see who has it open?

It's not in any menu screen I could see. If you are a Sharepoint admin, can you use Powershell with Sharepoint, etc? 

It looks like not only can you not unlock a file, you also can't see who has it locked?