File locking

🔐 File locking

This is the one thing NcDavTray does that the official Nextcloud Desktop Client cannot, and it is the reason a lot of people use both side by side.

Tip

TL;DR — Because NcDavTray exposes Nextcloud as a real network drive, Office applications send a WebDAV LOCK before editing a file, automatically and with no configuration. Another user then sees the familiar file is locked warning. The Desktop Client does not do this, because it edits a local copy. With the server app files_lock installed, non-Office files are locked too.

• Why it works here
• With the files_lock app
• A known limitation
• Side by side with the Desktop Client

⚙️ Why it works here

NcDavTray does not synchronise anything. The drive is the server, reached over WebDAV as you use it. So when Word, Excel, LibreOffice or Collabora opens a document from Z:, it opens it over WebDAV — and these applications issue a LOCK request before editing, exactly as they would on a SharePoint or a company file server.

flowchart LR
    subgraph NcDavTray
    A[Office opens Z:\doc.odt] --> B["WebDAV LOCK<br>to the server"]
    B --> C[Other users see it as locked]
    end
    subgraph Desktop Client
    D[Office opens the synced copy] --> E["a local file<br>no LOCK is sent"]
    E --> F[Other users notice nothing]
    end

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• Locking is automatic and per application — nothing to configure.
• Another user opening the same file gets the standard locked by another user warning.
• Closing the file releases the lock.

Important

This does not work through the Nextcloud Desktop Client, including virtual files. The client synchronises to a local file, and opening a local file sends no WebDAV request at all — there is nothing for the server to lock.

🧩 With the files_lock app

With files_lock installed on the server, locking goes further:

• Non-Office files get locked too — any application opening a file over the drive triggers a server-side lock.
• The Desktop Client gains a manual lock / unlock entry in the file context menu.
• The server enforces locks towards other users with HTTP 423.

⚠️ A known limitation

Warning

The user who created a lock can bypass it: they can still edit, rename, move or delete the file (files_lock#228). Locking is therefore effective between users but does not protect a file from the person who locked it — including from a second device of that same person.

🤝 Side by side with the Desktop Client

The two are complementary, not competitors:

	NcDavTray (WebDAV drive)	Nextcloud Desktop Client
Automatic Office file locking	✅	❌
Non-Office locking (with files_lock)	✅	❌
Manual lock from the context menu (with files_lock)	❌	✅
Works offline / keeps a local copy	❌	✅
Behaves like a standard network drive	✅	—

Running both is the usual arrangement: the Desktop Client for what you want available offline, NcDavTray for shared documents that several people edit.