J1.5

What do the locks mean and how do you get rid of them?

From Joomla! Documentation

The "J1.5" namespace is an archived namespace. This page contains information for a Joomla! version which is no longer supported. It exists only as a historical reference, it will not be improved and its content may be incomplete and/or contain broken links.

At any given time you may see a padlock next to a specific item in Joomla!'s administrative backend. These padlocks may be displayed next to any of the following (Content Items, Menu Items, Modules, etc).

The Joomla! system places these padlocks next to an item to indicate that a user is currently editing the item (i.e. the item is "checked out"). The lock is removed when the user clicks on the "Save" or "Close" button for that item. If the user never clicks "Save" or "Close" and instead hits the "Back" button or navigates to another page, then the item remains locked. If a different user needs to work with an item that is in the "checked out" state he or she must first ask a manager or administrator to check the item in before any new changes can be made.

Checking Items In[edit]

There are two ways of checking items back in. One way is to contact the person that has the item checked out to see if they are done with the item. This can be difficult if you do not know who has the item checked out.

The other option utilises the administrative back end; Click on "System => Global check in" This option should be used very carefully, especially in multi-user environments. This single action checks in all previously checked out items, whether they were checked out by you or not. Possible undesirable side effects may be that multiple editors end up working on the same document. In this case whoever clicks the save button last has their version saved as the final copy.