How to Lock and unlock an item in Sitecore

In Sitecore, you can lock the item you are working on to prevent other users from editing the same item at the same time. If the item that you want to edit is already locked, you cannot edit it, you can only view it. When you have finished editing the item, you must unlock the item to make it available to other users again.

Depending on the set up of your Sitecore installation, you may be prompted to lock the item, before you can edit it.


A Sitecore administrator can have the authority to edit another user’s locked items. Therefore, an administrator and another user can edit an item at the same time. If a user saves changes to an item, and another user saves changes to the same item afterward, a message box appears, asking the user if the previously saved changes should be overwritten.

Lock an Item :

1. In the Content Editor or the Experience Editor, navigate to the item or page that you want to edit.
2. In the Content Editor, on the Home tab, click Edit to lock the item.
   
   
   
   
   
3. In the Experience Editor, on the Home tab, in the Edit group, click Lock.
   
   
   
   
   
4. When you are finished editing the item, make sure to unlock the item again.

Unlock an Item:

If you have locked and edited numerous items, you can lose track of them. Sitecore keeps track of all the items that are locked, and by who. In this way, you can easily lock one or more items at the same time.

To unlock an item:

1. To see a list of the items that are locked by you, or to unlock one or more items:
2. In the Content Editor, on the Review tab, in the Locks group, click My Items.
   
   
   
   
   
3. In the Experience Editor, on the Home tab, in the Edit group, click My Items.
   
   
   
   Note

   
   

   The number next to the My Items button on the ribbon indicates the number of items that you have locked.
4. In the My Items dialog box, select the items that you want to unlock and click Unlock. To unlock all items at the same time, click Unlock All.
   
   
   

How Clone and unclone an item in Sitecore

Clone an item

A clone is an item that is not just a copy of the original item, but one that inherits the field values from the original item. If you update a field in the original item, the corresponding field in the clone is also updated.

To create a clone

• In the content tree, select the item that you want to clone.
• On the Configure tab, in the Clones group, click Clone.
  
  

  
  

  
  
• In the Clone Item dialog box, select the location where you want to store the clone. You can navigate to the location in the content tree on the Browse tab or search for the location on the Search tab.
  

  

  
  
• Click Clone.

If you select the clone item in the Content Editor, you notice that the field titles have the [original value] text added. This means that these values match the corresponding values in the original item and are updated if you edit the field in the original item.

Unclone an item

If you no longer want to have a connection between the original item and the clone, you can unclone the clone item.

To unclone a clone item:

• Select the clone you want to unclone.
• On the Configure tab, in the Clones group, click Unclone.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

No field values in the clone item change. The connection between the clone and the original item is removed and the clone becomes a normal content item.