When attempting to open a Word or Excel file via Web Folders, if you see a message telling you it is “locked for editing” by another user, and offering to either open a “read-only” copy or to “Notify” when the file is available for edit, choose “Notify” IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT the file is locked in error. This will open a read-only copy and then later notify you that it is available for edit, allowing you to switch to an Edit session.

If the WebDAV “Lock” was placed on the file by Microsoft Office in combination with Web Folders, and it has in fact expired, this notification will usually come in about two minutes.

Reasons the Lock might still exist but be expired include the following that happened while the Word/Excel file was being edited from a Web Folders location:

• PC crashed
• Power failure
• Word or Excel ended unexpectedly
• Laptop put to sleep
• Network connection lost

If the file was Locked using the My Docs Online Desktop App and one of the above occurred or the Desktop App ended unexpectedly, the lock will need to be released via the Desktop App. If you can re-launch the Desktop App from the same PC where the file was opened using “Lock & Open” you should see this message at login (remember to use the same My Docs Online Login ID):

“The Desktop App has file lock(s) in place for the following files: (file-name).”

Choose “Release” to free the lock. This will trigger the notification in Word/Excel via Web Folders (perhaps on a different PC) that the file can now be edited.

A My Docs Online Group Administrator, using the Desktop App, can also choose to Right-Click a file and “Force Unlock”  from any location, which will also trigger the “available for edit” notification in Word/Excel.