pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

File is currently locked by another user for editing

Error message

File is currently locked by another user for editing

What it means

In collaborative Pentaho repositories, files can be locked by a user for editing. When saving with checkLock enabled, if the target file is locked and the current user lacks permission to unlock it (i.e. it's someone else's lock), the save is refused with this KettleException to prevent clobbering another user's work.

Solutions

  1. Ask the lock owner to save and release the lock, then retry
  2. Unlock the file via the repository browser (Lock > Unlock) or unifiedRepositoryLockService.unlockFileById(id) if you have permission
  3. Admin: force-unlock the file in Pentaho User Console / repository admin
  4. Save to a new name/path with 'Save As' if the lock cannot be released
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

RepositoryFile f = pur.getFileById(id.getId());
boolean blocked = f.isLocked() && !unifiedRepositoryLockService.canUnlockFileById(id);
if (blocked) throw new KettleException("File " + f.getName() + " is locked by another user");

Try / catch

try {
  repository.save(element, comment, null, true);
} catch (KettleException e) {
  if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("locked by another user")) {
    // surface lock-owner info to the user; offer Save As or unlock request
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling PurRepository.save/saveRepositoryObject on an existing file whose UnifiedRepository file.isLocked() is true while unifiedRepositoryLockService.canUnlockFileById(id) is false.

Common situations: Two developers editing the same transformation in Spoon; a stale lock left by a crashed session or departed user; saving under an account with no lock-admin rights over a locked file.

Understand the failure class

Background: Permission denied / not authorized / 403 Forbidden: access-control rejections when the caller lacks the required role, grant, or ownership — this error's family across 18 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/92648bb6c2ae68f4. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/pur/core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/repository/pur/PurRepository.java:3457

    if ( Import.ROOT_DIRECTORY.equals( element.getRepositoryDirectory().toString() ) ) {
      // We don't have possibility to read this file via UI
      throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "PurRepository.fileCannotBeSavedInRootDirectory",
        element.getName() + element.getRepositoryElementType().getExtension() ) );
    }

    ExtensionPointHandler.callExtensionPoint( log, KettleExtensionPoint.BeforeSaveToRepository.id, element );

    final boolean isUpdate = ( element.getObjectId() != null && element.getObjectId().getId() != null  );
    RepositoryFile file = null;
    if ( isUpdate ) {

      readWriteLock.readLock().lock();
      try {
        ObjectId id = element.getObjectId();
        file = pur.getFileById( id.getId() );

        if ( checkLock && file.isLocked() && !unifiedRepositoryLockService.canUnlockFileById( id ) ) {
          throw new KettleException( "File is currently locked by another user for editing" );
        }
        if ( checkDeleted && isInTrash( file ) ) {
          // absolutely awful to have UI references in this class :(
          throw new KettleException( "File is in the Trash. Use Save As." );
        }
      } finally {
        readWriteLock.readLock().unlock();
      }

      readWriteLock.writeLock().lock();
      try {
        // update title and description
        file =
          new RepositoryFile.Builder( file ).title( RepositoryFile.DEFAULT_LOCALE, element.getName() ).createdDate(
            versionDate != null ? versionDate.getTime() : new Date() ).description( RepositoryFile.DEFAULT_LOCALE,
            Const.NVL( element.getDescription(), "" ) ).build();

        file =

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