Managing User Locks | FileCloud Help

As an administrator, you can have full control over file locking:

Decide whether you want to give users the ability to lock a folder or a file
See a list of all locked files and folders system-wide
Remove a lock on user's file or folder

To learn more about managing locks, click on a subject:

How Locking Works

Locking can be set on both files and folders and signifies that a user is actively working that file or folder.

Locking has to be enabled by the Administrator before the user has the option to lock a file or folder.
FileCloud LOCKING is designed to prevent opening/accessing files between DIFFERENT USER ACCOUNTS.
If you access a file whose lock is owned by you, then the file access will be ALLOWED.

When a file or folder is locked:

A lock icon will be shown in the file listing
The owner of the lock will also be shown in the details panel on the right hand side
The owner of the lock has full access to that file or folder and can modify it
Administrators can always override a lock in the Admin Portal
A lock can be set up to prevent other users from reading the file or seeing the folder contents.
If read permissions are not allowed, then other users cannot download or view the locked file or folder

The following table shows the behavior depending on the type of lock.

Lock with read allowed	Access by lock owner	Access by others
Yes	Full access to the file is available. Share/Sync/Edit/Deletes allowed	Only read is allowed. No modification is allowed
No	Full access to the file is available. Share/Sync/Edit/Deletes allowed	No access is provided . All access using all clients are blocked.

Turn Off All File Locking

You can disable locking so that users are never given this option in the User Portal.

This is a system-wide setting
To release a lock on a single file or folder, see the topic for Releasing a Single Lock

To disable locking:

In the FileCloud admin portal's left navigation bar, scroll down and click Settings. Then, on the Settings navigation page, click Misc .
By default, General settings are opened.
Locate the setting Disable locking, and enable it.
Click Save.

How to View Which Files or Folders are Locked

Viewing a list of files and folders that are currently locked by FileCloud users helps you to manage locks.

To view a list of locked files and folders:

Log on to admin portal.
From the left navigation pane, click User Locks.
On the Manage File/Folder Locks screen, view the list of all files and folders currently locked.

You can use the Filter entry box to limit the list. To view only the locked files and folders, type in a string of characters. Only the files and folders that match the string will be displayed. To clear the filter, delete the string of characters from this box.

For example:

You can filter the results by lock owner. To do this, type in the user account name.
You can see all files that are locked in a particular folder. To do this, type in the name of the folder.

Release a Single Lock

There are times when you may need to unlock a file for a user.

A user no longer has a FileCloud account but has left a file locked
A project folder can be used as a staging area that can be unlocked when the files are ready to be viewed
Another user needs access to the file and the lock owner cannot be reached
No one remembers why the file is locked

To release the lock on a single file or folder:

Log on to admin portal.
From the left navigation pane, click User Locks.
On the Manage File/Folder Locks screen, find the file or folder whose lock you want to remove.
In the row containing that file or folder name, under the Actions column, click the unlock button ( ).
On the Confirm Override screen, click OK.

To release the lock on all locked files and folders:

Log on to admin portal.
From the left navigation pane, click User Locks.
On the Manage File/Folder Locks screen, click Clear All Locks.

A confirmation dialog box opens.
Click OK.