Lock or Unlock site collections in SharePoint 2010

In this article we will be seeing how to lock or unlock site collections in SharePoint 2010.

Introduction:

To prevent users from adding the contents or updating the contents to the site collection you can apply locks to a site collection. And also to prevent users from accessing the site collection temporarily you can apply locks to a site collection.

Site Lock Information:

To view the current lock status or to change the lock status go to Central Administration => Application Management => Site Collection => Configure quotas and locks.



You could see the lock status as shown in the following



Locking Options:

The following are the locking options available in SharePoint Server 2010.

• Not locked
• Adding content prevented
• Read-only (prevents additions, updates, and deletions)
• No access

Not locked - Unlocks the site collection and makes it available to users.

Adding content prevented -Prevents users from adding new content to the site collection. Updates and deletions are still allowed.

Example:

When you try to add content to the site collection you will be getting the error.

I tried adding word document to the Shared Documents I was getting the following error.



Read-only (prevents additions, updates, and deletions) - Prevents users from adding, updating, or deleting content.

Example:

You won't be getting an option to add, update or delete the contents. I tried deleting the document from Shared documents but the options were disabled in the ribbon interface and I was not able to find the options in the ECB menu.




No access -Prevents users from accessing content. Users who attempt to access the site receive an access-denied message.

Example:

When you try to access the site collection you will be getting the following error.



Lock or Unlock site collection using object model:

• Open Visual Studio 2010.
• Go to File => New => Project.
• Select Console Application template from the installed templates.
• Enter the Name and click Ok.
• Add the following assembly.
  
  Microsoft.SharePoint.dll
   
• Add the following namespace.
  
  Using Microsoft.SharePoint;

Adding content prevented:

SPSite.WriteLocked property is used to enable "Adding content prevented" option.

It is used to get or set a Boolean value that specifies whether the site collection is locked and unavailable for Write access.

            using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://serverName:22222/sites/test"))
            {             
                site.WriteLocked = true;
                site.LockIssue = "Testing Purpose";
            }

Note: Refer SPSite.WriteLocked for more details.

No access:

SPSite.ReadLocked property is used to enable "No access" option.

It is used to get or set a Boolean value that specifies whether the site collection is locked and unavailable for Read access.

            using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://serverName:22222/sites/test"))
            {             
                site.ReadLocked = true;
                site.LockIssue = "Testing Purpose";
            }

Note: Refer SPSite.ReadLocked for more details.

Read-only (prevents additions, updates, and deletions):

SPSite.ReadOnly property is used to enable "Read-only (prevents additions, updates, and deletions)" option.

It is used to get or set a Boolean value that specifies whether the site collection is read-only, locked, and unavailable for write access.

            using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://serverName:22222/sites/test"))
            {             
                site.ReadOnly = true;
                site.LockIssue = "Testing Purpose";
            }

Note: Refer SPSite.ReadOnly for more details.

Lock or Unlock site collection using powershell:

• Go to Start => All Programs => Microsoft SharePoint 2010 products => SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
• Run as an administrator.
• Run the following script.
  
  Set-SPSite -Identity "<SiteCollectionURL>" -LockState "<Lock>"
  Where:
   
• <SiteCollectionURL> is the URL of the site collection that you want to lock or unlock.
• <Lock> is one of the following values
  
  
  • Unlock
  • NoAdditions
  • ReadOnly
  • NoAccess