What should I do if I am trying to access a record and get a locked by user message?

Modified on Fri, May 5, 2023 at 3:56 PM

When attempting to access a Colleague record, you may encounter a message indicating that the record is locked. There are a couple of reasons you may see this message: 

Another user is accessing the record. Normally, in this case, you can see the Colleague username of the person who is locking the record, as shown below with GBLINN.
A process that is running may lock a record. In most of these cases, the record is only locked for a few seconds and is then released. If it is a system process, the username will be root or datatel, but users can also run processes.

Image of Colleague record lock message with buttons for Retry or Cancel

Retry & Cancel:

Retry will attempt to access the record again immediately.

If the record is being locked by a process, it may be released fairly quickly and Retry will avoid having to look the person up again.
Cancel will exit the record. Try back in a few minutes.

If the record is being locked by a user, chance are they may be in the person's record for a bit, depending on what they are doing. Try again later.

What to do if a record is locked for an extended period of time:

Reach out to the person who is locking the record and ask them to let you know when they are done.

Don't know who it is? Look the person up in the Faculty & Staff directory or use the Outlook address book by referencing the Colleague username, which is typically in the format of first initial of first name followed by the first seven characters of the last name or a combination of the beginning of the last name plus numbers. In some cases, it is just the last name.

If you have reached out to the person and they are unreachable or they indicate they are no longer in the record, email [email protected] about the record lock, making sure to reference the username that is locking the record. IT will also attempt to reach the person but can ultimately end that person's session so you can access the record.