Content locking

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Content locking helps protect your work when you are editing pages, content items, or headless items. When enabled, 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 you begin editing and releases it when you change the workflow step, 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.

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).
  • Create a new version of an item – for example, when you select Edit page or Edit item 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Items cannot be locked when their current status is Published or Unpublished.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

Actions that do not lock content

The actions that do not automatically lock the item include:

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

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

  • Edit structured content on the Content tab
  • Edit on the Page Builder tab
  • Change page URLs (except for redirects)
  • Publish, revert to the published version, or change the workflow step of the item

All users can still:

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.

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 step
  • Move the item to the recycle bin

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, 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 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

To unlock an item locked by another user:

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.