Driio can detect when Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) are locked by another user and prevent conflicting edits. When a locked file is detected, the document is opened in read-only mode with a lock badge in Finder.
How It Works
When a user opens a Microsoft Office document, Office creates a temporary lock file (prefixed with ~$) alongside the original. Driio's polling watcher detects these lock files and checks who created them. If the lock file belongs to a different user, the document is marked as read-only to prevent editing conflicts.
Supported Protocols
| Protocol |
Supported |
How Ownership Is Detected |
| SMB |
Yes |
Windows Security Identifier (SID) of the lock file owner |
| SSH/SFTP |
Yes |
POSIX user ID (UID) of the lock file owner |
| WebDAV |
No |
No reliable file ownership information available |
| FTP |
No |
No file ownership information available |
Lock file detection is only available for SMB and SSH/SFTP connections. WebDAV and FTP do not expose reliable file ownership information, so the feature is not offered for those protocols.
Supported File Types
.docx, .doc, .docm — Microsoft Word.xlsx, .xls, .xlsm — Microsoft Excel.pptx, .ppt, .pptm — Microsoft PowerPoint
Enabling File Locking
File lock detection is opt-in and must be enabled per connection:
- Edit your connection
- Expand the Advanced section
- Enable Detect MS Office Lock Files
- Save the connection
What Happens When a File Is Locked
- A lock badge appears on the file in Finder
- The file opens in read-only mode in the application
- Attempts to save changes are blocked until the lock is released
- When the other user closes the document, the lock clears automatically on the next polling cycle
Important Limitations
- Polling-based detection — Lock state is checked at each polling interval (default: 5 seconds). There is a brief window between when a lock file appears on the server and when Driio detects it. During this window, two users could theoretically open the same file for editing.
- Not a replacement for server-side locking — This feature detects Office lock files as a convenience. It does not implement true server-side file locking. For environments where data integrity is critical, use your server's native locking mechanisms in addition to this feature.
- Lock file cleanup — If an application crashes or a user disconnects unexpectedly, the
~$ lock file may remain on the server. This will cause the document to appear locked until the stale lock file is manually deleted.
- Network latency — On slower connections, there may be additional delay between lock file creation and detection. The accuracy of lock detection depends on polling speed and network conditions.
- Lock file upload delay — When you open an Office document, macOS may delay uploading the lock file by up to 60 seconds. This is a macOS File Provider framework limitation — it deprioritizes small, temporary-looking files. During this delay, other users will not see the lock. The document itself uploads immediately.