When are jobs locked? How do I unlock a job?

Lexacom allows many users to view and work on the same set of jobs. Colleagues in your Pool(s) will be able to see the same jobs as you when they log in. Job locking ensures that two users do not work on the same job at the same time, and allows users to hold jobs to work on later.

When are jobs locked?

Jobs are locked to a user when the user loads a job to work on it.

Whilst the user has the job open, the job is locked to the user and their device.

Other users will not be able to load the job. The user will not be able to load that job on a different device.

When a user saves the job, they can keep this locked to them, or can leave this unlocked, so that other users can work on this.

A job that is locked will have a lock icon against it in the Inbox and Tracking grids.

If a job is locked by another user, it will display this icon:

If a job is locked by you, it will display this icon:

In both cases, the user that has locked the job, and whether this is locked to a device, will be displayed as a tooltip when hovering your cursor over the icon.

Additionally, jobs may be locked when they are processed by a service like EchoScribe^®. Whilst a job is being processed by a service, the job is locked to prevent users from loading or changing the workflow step on the job whilst the service performs its actions. The job will be automatically unlocked when the service completes its processing and the job is progressed to the next workflow step.

How do I unlock a job?

First, hover your cursor over the lock icon to see what type of lock is applied. Then follow the corresponding guide below.

How do I unlock a job locked to me?

To unlock a job that is locked to you (but not also locked to a device):

Right-click on the job in your Inbox grid
Select Unlock this job

This will unlock the job.

Alternatively, if you have the job loaded:

Click the Save & Unlock button – this will save the job and leave this unlocked

If this option is greyed out and does not function, the lock may belong to another user.

How do I unlock a job locked by another user?

In general, you should only lock jobs that you wish to hold to yourself, and leave jobs unlocked if colleagues may need to take them on.

If you need access to a job that a colleague has locked, first ask the colleague to unlock the job with the process above.

If the user is unavailable, or the job is locked to a device when the user does not have it open, and it is appropriate to take on the job, users with the Workflow Admin role are able to unlock jobs from the Search tab.

To unlock a job:

Find the job in the Search grid
Left-click to select the job
Click the Unlock the selected job button

This action cannot be done from the Inbox or Tracking tab, only the Search tab.

If the job is only locked to a user, the job will be unlocked. Other users may then load and work on the job.

If the job is locked to a user and device (i.e. the system thinks the job is open by a user at the moment), you will be prompted to provide a reason:

Enter a reason for unlocking the job
Click OK

⚠️ Clearing a device lock could allow two users to work on the same job simultaneously. This may cause conflicts when users attempt to save work and may cause some changes to the job to be lost. Only clear a device lock if you are certain the user is not currently working on the job (e.g. if their computer was shut down or crashed whilst the job was loaded).

How do I unlock a job I have locked to a different device?

In general, if you have loaded a job on a device, you will need to save that job before you can load this on a different device.

If this is not actively loaded on the device (e.g. if your device closed unexpectedly), first:

Restart Lexacom on the device
Load the locked job on the same device that it is locked to
Save the job

Where this is not possible (e.g. the device has been lost, is unavailable, or Lexacom has been reinstalled on the device), users with the Workflow Admin role can unlock the device using the instructions above.

If this is not possible, please contact Support who can assist.

How do I unlock a job locked by a service?

A job that is progressed to a service step – like EchoScribe^®– is locked to that service whilst it is processed. This is to ensure that the job is not changed whilst the service is processing the job.

The job will be unlocked when the service completes its processing. The time that the service takes to process the job will depend on several factors, including the duration of the audio if using EchoScribe^®. Longer dictations will take longer to be processed by the service.

If you need to access a job that is locked by a service, first wait a little while for the job to be processed by the service.

If the job remains locked to the service after a long time, please contact Support who can assist.

How do I lock a job?

To lock a job:

Load the job from your Inbox grid
Click the Save & Lock button – this will save the job and keep it locked to you