Allow a site owner to kick a user out of a file opened in Excel Online
If you have multiple people co-authoring in Excel Online, there are times when you need to open the file in Excel - typically for advanced formatting, etc. If someone has accidentally left the file open in their browser, there is no way to force them out and keeps the file locked. Although not always intentional, it can create a major headache by not being able to simply kick/close out that particular user from editing.
Anonymous
shared this idea
Thank you for the feedback! Co-authoring between Web, Windows, and Mac is supported in current versions of Excel.
104 comments
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Alex Jenkins
commented
Second last comment. This is definitely not "Completed". Please help us.
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Lisa White
commented
The "Completed" message totally misses the point. Duh, we know that co-authoring is supported. While that's an excellent feature, it brings with it the problem of users leaving files open.
Like all the other comments here, I can't believe this isn't fixed yet.
Microsoft, are you in there?
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Anonymous
commented
This HAS to be included. Absolutely essential for Excel online and Word online. Kick out inactive users!
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Anonymous
commented
Considering this was posted about 5 YEARS AGO......... I don't think Microsoft is ever going to listen to us about this absolutely needed feature. Very sad
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Stephanie Campbell
commented
I would also like to see this feature implemented.
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Anonymous
commented
This would be a great feature. Could really use it right now.
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JW
commented
The request/fix is NOT COMPLETED. Allow document owners to close members out of the file!!!!!!
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Adam
commented
This has not been Completed! Users are still able to leave their browser open and lock an Excel Online workbooks. Please consider the OP's request and allow site owners to kick users out of Excel Online workbooks so that the excel file can be opened and edited on the Desktop.
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Anonymous
commented
This is not addressed. If I own the Excel file, and someone leaves it open Online and then goes to a meeting, or dinner, or to sleep, I absolutely need to the ability to kick them out. This is not co-authoring.
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D
commented
anyone has an answer to this yet?
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shan
commented
How do we get this re-opened? This is not fixed / completed. The ask was not to allow for co-authoring nor does co-authoring capability address the need ; cause, remember, ya'll at MS haven't figured out how to allow for co-authoring, regardless if users are editing in both the app and online!
Site Admins/Owners still need the ability to "kick someone out of edit mode".
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Colin Campbell
commented
@ Excel Team [MSFT], this request IS NOT "completed"!
It makes me wonder if your account is even run by a human, because the response you've given, "Co-authoring between Web, Windows, and Mac is supported in current versions of Excel." sounds like a bot wrote it. It does not address the request at hand in the slightest.
We're not looking to "co-author", we've already had that functionality for a long time, OBVIOUSLY.
We're looking to be able to kick users out of a file so that we can make changes that are only possible when a single user has the file open.
This isn't hard, and it's not hard to respond to these requests appropriately. We've been asking for this for FIVE YEARS now... what gives?
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Anonymous
commented
escalating this to Satya Nadella to get approval for 1 hour of dev time to make this happen. so easy to code............
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Amy
commented
co-authoring doesn't work like you wish it did. Please fix this already. When I try to edit online when someone has left it open in their browser, it won't let me copy/paste. When I open in desktop and edit I get an irresolvable sync error and the only solution that works is saving a local copy, which defeats the point. This is not a functional collaborative tool.
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Anonymous
commented
Yes, I concur with all other comments in this thread, same issue, someone left connected to the file, and no way to kick them out, which eliminates my ability to edit the file (because no offense, but desktop app has about 1000x the abilities of Excel Online) :(
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Sarah
commented
There are so many things that you cannot do while someone else has a file open, even if there is "co-authoring". A coworker left her computer in sleep mode and is on vacation for a full week. During this week, we can't do many of the things we need to do. There should be an executive admin function to boot people from the file for maintenance.
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Will
commented
I found a way to kick the person out. If you have versioning turned on, find the last version the person updated and delete that version. This worked for me.
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Anonymous
commented
Please make this easy, it is so hatefull you cannot kick somebody out a file they forget to close en decide to go for dinner... please.
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Eugenio
commented
What answer is this? It does not address the problem stated. One of my file, as owner, is locked by a dummy user. How can we kick the dummy user out and start modifying the file again?
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Yuriy Eduardovich Tereshchenko commented
@Kris, I suggest you are doing something wrong. There is option to open file in excel desktop app from teams, from one drive, from sharepoint etc. There is always the button "open in desktop app". And work in the desktop app being online! The only thing is that you need to have excel 365 desktop app installed. Not excel 2016, and preferably not even 2019. Because they support this feature only partly. But since you are using modern cloud-based collaboration tools like Teams, you probably have all the 365 office subscription and this is the app you have. So you can do anything, even move to other folders and rename the file - all the users will still be able to work with your file and you won't need to kick them out. And if for some reason you want still to kick people from file - you can disable their access anytime. The exact way to do this depends on what type of access you gave initially, but it all goes under the settings section "manage access".