Prevent automatic Doc Locking

[THEBookMan]

Have been using OO for quite sometime, now. LOVE IT!!

Problem surfaced a short while ago:
All OO documents are automatically lock and I can only open them for "read Only"
Although i can see that this is important for multi users networks, I am the only one using this computer.

How do I prevent/turn off "Automatic Doc Lock"?

Must I unlock each one?
I would prefer to unlock all at once.

Have hunted for & not found ".~lock" anywhere on my 'puter.

Thanks for your time,
⌡im [THE BookMan]
920.265.5966

[John_Ha]

AOO does not do that so there is a problem on your PC. Check your Windows Defender settings.

Download this file and place on the desktop. Can you open, edit and save it?

[RoryOF]

Have you enabled "viewing of hidden and Archive files" (words to that effect) on the directories in which reside your files? You must do this to see the lock files. Also, in the root of your OO User profile, check that there is not a hidden Lock file.

I do not advise turning off the lock files - if you were, for example, to open a file twice - once (say) at beginning, once at end, to transfer text, or to enter notes for which you needed access to the early part of the file, it is very easy to get confused as to which file has been updated - one might in fact update both, and lose the updates. Better to establish why the lock files are remaining and cure that problem..

Were the files brought forward from another computer, or a backup disk (after a system restore, perhaps)? If so, the lock files may have been copied as part of the backup or the restore.

[keme]

AOO does not do that ...

Oh, well ... it might.

See menu item File - Properties, the Security tab.
Is there a tick mark to save as write protected?

This setting is sometimes "enabled by default". It's been a few years since I last heard about it, so I thought it was a fixed glitch.

If this is your culprit, I present to you good and bad news:
The bad news is that the cause is not in the file system, so you can't reset it for all your documents in one go.
The good news is that the cause is not in the file system, so it is easily fixed inside Writer/Calc/etc.: To edit, click the "Edit file" icon on the toolbar (the one to the left of the PDF export icon). You may also want to untick that security setting, so your file is editable by default next time you open it.

[RoryOF]

Good catch, keme. There are almost always a number of ways of achieving a desired aim in OpenOffice, and we each use a limited number of these in daily work, forgetting that there may be other ways we have forgotten about.

[John_Ha]

Oh, well ... it might.

See menu item File - Properties, the Security tab.
Is there a tick mark to save as write protected?

Good catch!

May I defend my comment "AOO does not do that ..." because any earlier documents will not be so locked. The poster said "All documents ..." - perhaps he means "All newly saved documents ..."

[RoryOF]

But if the locking is not caused by the method keme has pointed to, we need to find what the OP is doing that causes the documents to be locked.

[John_Ha]

The File > Properties > Security ..., applies only to the file being edited.

It isn't sticky so it has to be applied when required in any file making it unlikely that multiple files would be affected.