Unable to check-in a document - needs to be forced in

[JackMorgan]

Hi,

I'm a bit of a newbie. 🙂

We are using RM8.3 and some users frequently have issues where they are unable to check a document back in and need the Administrator to force check it in. What are some of the reasons why this would happen?

Thanks

Jack

[Jamie Smith]

Hi Jack, look at the 'Checked Out To' and 'Checked Out Path' properties of the record.  Normal users won't be able to check in a record if their name doesn't match the name in 'Checked Out To'.

What interface are the users using to check records back in?  The FAT desktop client typically won't let a normal user check in a record that isn't checked out to a local file or offline records, or if the 'Checked Out Path' is something unrecognisable.

[HeatherM1]

We had this a LOT in TRIM v7.3.3, usually when users checked the document out via Edit and kept the document open in its native application for hours. I tended to advise the users to only use Edit for very quick updates, and Check Out / Check In if they were going to have the document open for a long time.

I think the issue was compounded to some extent by the fact that the users' Offline Records folders were on a shared network drive, rather than a local folder on the individual's PC, and whenever there was a slight network interruption, it seemed to cause TRIM to forget that the document was checked out for that user.   

We also found that users  needed to completely close the authoring application i.e. have no other documents remaining open for the handover to TRIM to occur and for the documents to check back in successfully.

For some users, I would find that their Offline Records folder on the network drive (not the one you see in TRIM / RM /CM) would be chock-full of draft documents that had actually been checked in successfully ages ago.  Cleaning these out seemed to fix the problem, at least for a while.

Hope some of that helps.

[JackMorgan]

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for the reply. Users are using Desktop and the Checked Out Path is to their offline records which is on thier C Drive.

Cheers

Jack

[JackMorgan]

Hi Heather,

Thanks for replying. If their offline records is on their C drive, can a network interruption still occur? 

Cheers

Jack

[HeatherM1]

Hi Jack,

To be honest, I'm not sure. I do know that my organisation was advised to have the Offline Records folder on the C: drive for stability; however, we have users that shuttle between PC's, so we had to go with the shared network drive instead so that people could access their checked out documents on whichever PC they happened to be sitting at that day. 

[JackMorgan]

Hi Heather, 

No worries. Thanks for your help. 🙂

Jack