An attorney tries to open a document in NetDocuments and gets "This document is locked by another user." The other user closed it hours ago. Or they are working on it together and co-authoring is not behaving. Locked documents are one of the most disruptive day-to-day issues in law firms using NetDocs, and the fix depends on whether the lock is stale, legitimate, or caused by a crashed session.

Why Documents Get Locked

NetDocuments uses a check-out system. When someone opens a document for editing through ndOffice, NetDocs places an exclusive lock on that document. Other users can view it but cannot edit until the lock is released.

Locks become a problem when:

  • The user's session crashed. Outlook or Word closed unexpectedly, and the check-in never happened. The lock stays in place.
  • The user closed the document but ndOffice did not release the lock. This happens when ndOffice hangs during the save-and-close process.
  • A background process is holding the file open. Antivirus scanning, backup tools, or search indexing can keep a handle on the local cached copy, preventing ndOffice from completing the check-in.
  • Co-authoring is not enabled for the workspace. By default, NetDocuments uses exclusive locking. Co-authoring must be enabled at the workspace or cabinet level by an administrator.

Fix 1: Force Check-in as the Document Owner

If you are the user who has the document checked out:

  1. Open NetDocuments in your browser.
  2. Navigate to the locked document.
  3. Right-click the document and select Check In or look for the lock icon.
  4. If prompted about unsaved changes, choose to check in the server version or upload your local copy.

You can also use the ndOffice Activity Center in the system tray. Right-click the stuck document and select Check In to upload your local copy and release the lock.

If the document does not appear as checked out in the web interface but ndOffice still shows it locked, close all Office applications and check for orphaned Word or Excel processes in Task Manager. Kill any winword.exe or excel.exe processes, then try again.

If that still does not work, check the Echo folder for a stale owner file:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\ND Office Echo\VAULT-username\

Delete any ~$filename.docx lock files in that folder, then retry.

Fix 2: Admin Force Unlock

If the lock belongs to another user who is unavailable, anyone with Administer rights on that document can force the check-in. You do not need to be a full repository admin.

  1. Open NetDocuments in the browser and find the locked document.
  2. View the document properties to confirm who has it checked out.
  3. Click the document link and select Force Check-in from the document actions menu.
  4. The lock is released immediately. The forcing user's version becomes the new official version.
  5. If the original user had unsaved edits in their Echo folder, those edits remain there and will need to be manually reconciled.

Cabinet Administrators and anyone with VESA rights can also perform force check-ins on any document in their cabinet.

Fix 3: Resolve Co-authoring Conflicts

If your workspace has co-authoring enabled and two people edited the same document simultaneously, NetDocuments may flag a conflict on save.

When a conflict occurs:

  1. NetDocuments saves both versions. The second user to save gets a prompt asking which version to keep.
  2. If the prompt was dismissed or missed, both versions exist in the version history.
  3. Open the document's Version History in the web interface.
  4. Compare the two versions and merge changes manually, or select the correct one as the current version.

To avoid conflicts: use Office Online co-editing through NetDocuments instead of desktop checkout. The first user opens via Open In > Microsoft Word Online, and subsequent users select Open In > Microsoft Word Online (Co-Edit). Changes save in real time with no checkout lock required. Co-authoring is enabled by default for Office 365-integrated cabinets.

Fix 4: Clear Stale Locks in Bulk

If your firm has multiple stale locks after a power outage, network disruption, or server maintenance, administrators can clear them in bulk.

In the NetDocuments Admin Console:

  1. Go to Repository Administration > Document Management.
  2. Filter for documents with active locks.
  3. Select the stale locks and use Bulk Unlock or Force Check-in.

There is no automatic timeout on NetDocuments locks by default. They persist until explicitly released or force-cleared by an admin.

Fix 5: Prevent Lock Issues Going Forward

A few configuration changes reduce lock problems significantly:

Enable co-authoring. In the Admin Console, go to Cabinet Settings > Collaboration and enable co-authoring for the cabinet or workspace. This allows multiple users to edit simultaneously instead of locking each other out.

Set up auto-check-in. ndOffice can be configured to automatically check in documents when the user closes them. Check your ndOffice settings under the NetDocuments tray icon > Options > Check-in behavior.

Train users on the web editor. For quick edits, the NetDocuments web editor does not use exclusive locks the way ndOffice does. Users making minor changes can edit directly in the browser without triggering a lock.

Keep ndOffice and ndClick updated. Older versions have known bugs where locks are not released on close. Also note that Chrome 142+ and Edge 143+ require "Local Network Access" to be enabled for ndClick communication to work. Without it, check-in can fail silently and leave documents locked.

Assign at least two users with A rights per workspace so someone is always available to force check-in when a user is out of office or has left the firm.

Document locking issues disrupting your firm? Contact Rain City Techworks.