Editing a read-only file by Windows

When I open to edit a document created by LibreOffice Writer two years ago, I can’t remove the “read-only” and can’t edit it. It is the same situation when I open it in MS Word, and it is being edited by someone else.

I duplicated the file and opened it, but it was still “read-only”. I looked at the properties of this file, but the attributes of the file itself are not read-only.
How can I remove this “read-only” setting?


Windows10, LibreOffice 7.1.6

Hi. This is an operating system/anti-virus issue mostly.
There might be more than one read-only issue here; access blocked to LibreOffice, the file wasn’t closed properly the previous time (underlying the blocked access as MS Office says it is read only), your Windows user profile might have been damaged during a Windows update. Try the below potential solution first.

  1. You probably need to allow soffice.bin access to Controlled folders. See the slightly oddly titled question and my reply: Installed 7.1 yesterday; today MS Office is non-op

  2. If Microsoft Office says it is read-only there might be an old lock file in the folder. Open File Explorer and click View > Options > Change folder and search options, in the dialog tick the radio button to show hidden folders and files


    Then navigate to the folder in which your file is located. Look for a file named
    .~Lock.[YourFilename.odt]#, where [YourFilename.odt] is the name of your file. If the lockfile has an old date then delete it. MS Office should then be able to open and edit it, and if you have unblocked LibreOffice then it too will be able to open and edit it.

If you have any questions just ask. Cheers, Al