# Fix the 'File is locked' commit error

When committing from the coding queue fails with 'The coding could not be committed' and the server log says 'File is locked' — the real lock causes, and the permissions failure that wears the same message.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: system-administrator · Time: 30 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/fix-the-file-is-locked-commit-error

**At the end of this guide you'll have matched the user-facing symptom to the server-side evidence, checked the two causes in the right order — and you'll know the twist: a folder-permissions failure produces exactly the same "locked" message a real lock does.**

## Match the symptom to the evidence

What the user sees when committing a document from the coding queue is deliberately generic: **"The coding could not be committed."** The specifics live on the server, in **Event Viewer** > **Applications and Services Logs** > **ContentCentral** (source `AdmCCWebsite`) — a custom log, **not** the Windows Application log; that's the detail that wastes the most time. The entry for this problem reads:

> `File is locked. Waited for 15 seconds.`

The mechanics behind it: committing moves the document's file from the coding-queue folder to its catalog folder. The server retries that move for 15 seconds, then gives up with this message. Two very different things make the move fail.

## Cause 1 — something genuinely holds the file

A process has the coding-queue file open: an antivirus scanner mid-scan, a backup agent, an indexing service, someone who opened the file straight from the server's disk. Clues: it's intermittent, correlates with scan/backup windows, and retrying the commit later works.

Fix at the source — exclude the Content Central data folders (the coding queue and documents roots shown in Configuration Manager's **System Folders**) from real-time scanning and backup-agent file locks. Retry-later is a workaround, not a fix.

## Cause 2 — the permissions failure in a lock costume

Here's the twist this article exists for: **an access-denied failure retries and reports identically to a lock.** If the application pool identity — **NETWORK SERVICE** on a default install — lacks Modify rights on either end of the move, every retry fails for 15 seconds and the log says "File is locked," even though nothing holds the file.

Suspect this cause when the error is *consistent* — every commit, every time — especially after the folders were moved, restored from backup, or repointed at a new disk (restores and new shares don't bring the ACLs along).

1. Check **Administration** > **System Health** first — its storage-folder checks catch exactly this and name the folder.

2. Grant the rights on the coding-queue and documents roots (paths from **System Folders** in Configuration Manager):
   
   ```bash
   icacls "D:\Ademero\Content Central\Incoming" /grant "NETWORK SERVICE:(OI)(CI)M"
   ```
   
   ```bash
   icacls "D:\Ademero\Content Central\Documents" /grant "NETWORK SERVICE:(OI)(CI)M"
   ```
   
   Grant on the specific data folders, not the whole Ademero root — the parent folders are deliberately read-only for the service identity.

## The neighbors this isn't

- **"The destination document path already exists."** — a different log entry from the same operation: a name collision at the destination, not a lock. Two documents built the same folder-and-file name; resolve the collision (or the [folder-building pattern](/content-central/administration/folder-and-file-building) creating it).
- **A document someone's *editing* is locked** — that's check-out and Content Director territory, diagnosed from the user's side in [Find out what's locking a file](/content-central/administration/find-out-whats-locking-a-file).

**Success check:** after the fix, commit a test document from the coding queue — it files, and no new `File is locked` entry appears in the ContentCentral log. For cause 2, the proof is consistency: commits work every time, not just this time.

## What's next

- [Find out what's locking a file](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/find-out-whats-locking-a-file)
- [Content Central feels slow](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/content-central-feels-slow)