Locks and conflicts

What to do when a file is checked out by someone else.

Only one person can hold a file at a time. That's what prevents two people overwriting each other's work.

When it's locked by someone else

You'll see who holds it and since when. Your options:

• Ask them. Usually the fastest fix — people often forget they hold a lock.
• Open read-only. You can view and reference it, just not save changes.
• Ask an administrator to force-release. Available, but their unsaved work is lost, so it should be a last resort with a conversation first.

Assemblies

Cascade checkout takes what it can and reports what it couldn't. You can work on the rest and pick up the remainder later.

Stale locks

Occasionally a lock outlives its purpose — someone left, or a machine was rebuilt. Administrators can see all open checkouts and release them. Notifications can also warn about revisions untouched for a long time; see Notifications.