---
title: Content locking
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/configuration/content-locking-configuration.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/website-content/edit-and-publish-pages.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/content-hub/content-items.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/headless-content.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/digital-marketing/emails.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

Content locking helps protect your work when you are editing [pages](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/website-content.md), [content items](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/content-hub/content-items.md), [headless items](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/headless-content.md), or [emails](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/digital-marketing/emails.md). When [enabled](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/configuration/content-locking-configuration.md#enable-content-locking), the system locks the item you are editing so that no one else can modify it until the lock is released. Only one user can hold the lock on a given item at a time.

The system generally [acquires the lock](#when-content-is-locked) when you begin editing and [releases it](#release-a-content-lock) when you change the [workflow step](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/configuration/workflows.md), publish the item, or explicitly release the lock. Other users can view the content of the item, see who is editing the item and for how long, but cannot make changes. If needed, users with the appropriate permission can [override the lock](#override-a-content-lock).

## When content is locked

The content lock is acquired per language variant, i.e., different users can hold the lock for different language variants of the same item. The system locks content automatically when you:

- **Start editing the item** by selecting the **Edit** button.
- **Create a new item** or a new language variant of an existing item (with the exception of [AIRA translations](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/aira.md#aira-translations)).
- **Create a new version** of an item – for example, when you select **Create new version** or **Edit page** on a published or scheduled item.

Items cannot be locked when their current status is **Published** or **Unpublished**. You need to start editing the item to lock it.

When you hold a content lock on an item, an information bar is displayed on top of the page:

![Locked item infobar](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/documentation/content-locking/locked-by-you-bar.png "Locked item infobar")

> **Info:** **Actions that do not lock content**
>
> The actions that do not automatically lock the item include:
>
> - Cloning an item
> - [Translating using AIRA](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/aira.md#aira-translations)
> - Restoring an item from the [recycle bin](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/recycle-bin.md)
> - Creating an item from the combined content selector field

## What happens when content is locked

When an item is locked by another user, you see a warning banner showing the name of the user holding the lock and the time when the lock was acquired. You can view the item, but you cannot edit it.

![Item locked by another user](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/documentation/content-locking/locked-by-other-user-bar.png "Item locked by another user")

**Only the user** who holds the lock can perform the following actions:

- **Edit** structured content on the _Content_ tab
- Edit on the _Page Builder_ and _Email Builder_ tab
- Publish, revert to the published version, or change the [workflow step](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/configuration/workflows.md) of the item
- Change [page URLs](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/website-content/manage-page-urls.md) (except for [redirects](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/website-content/edit-and-publish-pages.md#redirects-from-unpublished-and-deleted-pages))
- Edit the _Properties_ panel and _Plain text_ panel in email channel applications

**All users** can still:

- **Delete**, **move the item**, or change its name
- **View** the _Properties_ tab, and **make changes** on the tab (except for emails)
  - Includes modifying [membership access](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/members.md) and [page permissions](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/configuration/users/role-management/page-permission-management.md)
  - Emails: view the tab without making changes
- View the _Content_, _Preview_, and _Used in_ tabs
- View _Contact activities_ and _Statistics_ for emails
- Get a [shareable preview URL](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/website-content.md#shareable-preview-urls)
- Run [SEO and GEO analysis](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/aira/agentic-marketing-suite.md#seo-geo-specialist)
- [Send draft emails](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/digital-marketing/emails.md#send-draft-emails)
- Save [page](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/website-content/page-templates.md#save-pages-as-preset-page-templates) or [email](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/digital-marketing/emails/create-emails-in-email-builder/email-builder-templates.md#save-emails-as-preset-email-templates) as a preset template
- Link the item in other content (the locked item cannot be published via the [cascade publish](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/content-hub/content-items.md#cascade-publishing) while locked)

## Release a content lock

### Manual release

- You can release the lock yourself at any time by selecting the **Release lock** button in the editing bar. If you made changes, the system saves them automatically before releasing the lock.
- An administrator or a user with the appropriate permission can also release the lock – see [Override a content lock](#override-a-content-lock).

### Automatic release

The system releases the lock automatically when you:

- Publish, schedule, or revert the item to its published version
- Move the item to any other [workflow](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/configuration/workflows.md) step
- [Send or schedule](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/digital-marketing/emails/send-regular-emails-to-subscribers.md#send-regular-emails) an email to be sent
- Move the item to the [recycle bin](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/business-users/recycle-bin.md)

You can verify that the lock has been released when the editing bar with the **Release lock** button is no longer visible on the **Content**, **Page Builder**, **Email Builder**, and **URL** tabs.

## Override a content lock

If you need to edit an item locked by another user, contact the user who holds the lock, or reach out to the administrator. However, in some situations, users who locked certain items may become unavailable, while others need to work on them. To resolve such situations, the administrator and users with the [Override content lock permission](https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/configuration/content-locking-configuration.md#override-content-lock) can release locks held by other users. Users with this permission see the **Unlock** button on items locked by other users:

![Bar with the Unlock button](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/documentation/content-locking/locked-with-unlock-button.png "Bar with the Unlock button")

To unlock an item locked by another user:

> **Warning:** Overriding a content lock discards unsaved changes made by the original editor. Subsequent edits can also result in their changes being lost.

1. Make sure that the override is suitable in this situation.
2. Select the **Unlock** button.
3. Confirm the dialog to unlock the item.

The item is now unlocked and other users can edit the item.