This site is customised for the Windows version of Case Manager. See also Web version or Mobile version.

Locked documents FAQ

As explained in Locking and unlocking documents, in certain installations of Case Manager document locks prevent multiple users trying to update the same linked file (e.g. the same Word file) at the same time. Most times everything works smoothly and you never notice how document locks are protecting your files.

However, you sometimes see the Locked (open) documents window at the bottom left hand side of the Case List. Its presence indicates that at least one locked document issue needs to be resolved

To do so, first read through Locking and unlocking documents to remind yourself how document locks function at your particular Case Manager installation. Then go to the relevant section below, which explains why the issue may have occurred and how to solve it.

Local with web

symptom	why it happened	solution
Locked document shown in window	You didn't save and close the document in Word to release its lock, so when you returned to CM the file was still locked by Word and CM couldn't unlock it.	Return to Word and close the document. Come back to CM. CM sees that Word has unlocked the document, so it can now turn off the CM lock. This solves the problem if you are still within the same CM session where you started the document editing; if you are not, see the next solution
OR
Word was very slow to release its lock so that even though you did the right thing, when you returned to CM the file was still locked by Word and CM couldn't unlock it or You enabled Word to release its lock after you had closed your CM session so CM never found out that Word had unlocked the file.	Simply click the unlock icon to release the CM lock.
OR
Mystery: something else has locked your Word document (a virus checker? a backup utility?); so CM can't unlock it	Attempt to unlock the linked document and follow instructions immediately above Ask us for help at Support if you can't resolve this.

Remote

symptom	why it happened	solution
Locked document shown in window	You didn't save and close the document in Word to release its lock, so when you returned to CM the file was still locked by Word and CM couldn't unlock it.	Return to Word and close the document. Come back to CM. CM sees that Word has unlocked the document so it can upload the local file and unlock the CM lock. This solves the problem if you are still within the same CM session; if not, see the next solution.
OR
Word was very slow to release its lock so that even though you did the right thing, when you returned to CM the file was still locked by Word and CM couldn't unlock it or You enabled Word to release its lock after you had closed your CM session so CM never found out that Word had unlocked the file.	You can see your document in the Locked documents window and the updated local file in the preview window. Note that other users will see the original document in their preview windows and be prevented from updating it. Simply click the icon to upload your local document to the remote location and release the lock. Naturally you must do this at the same computer where you first opened the document, because that's where the local document was saved.
OR
Mystery: something else has locked your Word document (a virus checker ? a backup utility?); so CM can't unlock it	Attempt to unlock the local document and then follow the instructions immediately above Ask us for help at Support if you can't resolve this.
OR
Network problem happened during CM upload of document so it didn't complete and CM can't unlock the file	You see your document in the locked documents list and the updated, local file in the updated preview window. Note that, once again, other users will see the original document in their preview windows and be prevented from updating it. Simply click the icon to upload your local document to the remote location and release the lock. As explained above, do this at the same computer where you first opened the document.
Locked document shown in window but when you click to upload the local file you get an error message:	There was a Network problem after upload and deletion of local file but before CM removed the lock, so there is no local document to upload.	Ask us for help at Support to locate the uploaded file and make it available for you to check. If it is OK, click the unlock icon to release the lock without uploading anything.

Document Lock Manager

The instructions above explain how to manage a locked document issue where you were the user locking it.

In contrast, the Document Lock Manager displays to authorised users all the locked documents in the system and the user who is/was updating each one. It offers system-wide tools to resolve document lock problems.