File Name is Locked for editing by another user

Yesterday I was at a client place trying to steer them in getting there processes automated with SharePoint and Workflow. I already have created a test workflow for them to do a Demo to their executives. It was a simple workflow that sends the document for approval and publishes it to PDF. The IT team was preparing for demo by testing the workflow. When they kicked the workflow one of the reviewer opened the document for review and added his comment and about to check in but the Microsoft Word crashed and he had to close the application. When he tried to open the document again from the library he started getting the error shown below.






The Library is not force checkout enabled nor the document is checked out. Further the document shows is checked out to the same person.

The reason why he was seeing the error is because in SharePoint when you open a document for editing SharePoint places a write lock on the document. If Word crashes or the application is force closed the lock is not released and there is no manual way to unlock the document. The solution is to wait for 10 minutes before trying to edit the document. If you wait for 10 minutes SharePoint releases it lock and the document returns to normal state.




Hope this helps some one. You can find more information on this in this KB article here.