File locking prevents multiple users from opening a file for write at the same time. Without file locking, one user's writes could overwrite another user's changes or cause unpredictable file inconsistencies.
One problem with file locking, however, is if a user forgets to close the file or application after working on a file, other users may be locked out and unable to edit the file. While some applications have sophisticated locking mechanisms that makes it easy to determine who has locked the file (Microsoft Office), other applications may not have such features (some PDF editors).
Morro Audit can be used to determine who has a lock on a file.
- Go to Morro Audit, click Device in the left side menu.
- Go to the STATUS tab, select a device in the Gateway dropdown, then select "Network - Active SMB Sessions" from the Item dropdown.
- Click Run/Refresh. A list of all SMB sessions and locks on the device will appear.
The Locks section shows the list of users holding locks on the opened files on a device. If the device is heavily used and the list is long and you know the name of the file, you may use the web browser's search in page function to find the record for the file.
Because the list only covers a single device's session, you may need to run the search on each individual device to determine who and which device has the lock.
You can also check lock information from the Lock Manger, please refer to Files & Locks page.