The content lock feature protects a page from being edited by another CMS user while you have it locked.
If you have locked a page, it will stay locked until:
the page is saved (to any status, e.g. Draft or Needs Review)
you manually unlock it by clicking the Unlock button at the bottom of the page
the lock period of 4 hours has elapsed
a site administrator or approver unlocks it.
Locking a content page
Once you have entered Edit mode on a page, the lock is applied and you will see this message:
This content is now locked against simultaneous editing. The content will remain locked if you navigate away form this page without saving or unlocking it.
Once you've completed your changes, you can save as Draft or Needs Review (if the content is ready to go live), and the content lock should automatically be removed.
However, if you click Edit again but don’t save the page, the page may remain locked to you. It will also stay locked to you if you have closed the tab. You should make sure you manually unlock the page so that other editors or approvers can access the page.
Unlocking your page
To manually unlock a page locked to you, scroll to the Unlock button at the bottom of the page when you are in the Edit screen.
You could also go to the Locked content page in the CMS (find this by clicking Content > Locked content in the main menu) and:
select the page(s) you want to unlock
click the “Apply to selected items” button.
Trying to edit a page locked by someone else
If another content editor is editing a page you want to work on, you'll see the following message:
This content is being edited by [username of content editor updating page] and is therefore locked to prevent other users changes. This lock is in place since [x min x sec].
This means that you can't edit a page at the same time as another content editor. You can either:
return to the page later to make your edits
ask the editor to remove the lock.