Does it take an Admin to override Check Out?

[ChrizK]

Many years ago, before Modern/O365, Sharepoint could be a complete PITA.

You could Check Out a document, only to find that you couldn't Check In, as it was locked ...by yourself.

You then had to contact a site admin to unlock it, so you could continue.

I haven't experienced this over the last few months, using Modern/O365, and thought the behaviour had finally been laid to rest.  However, I have just come off a team meeting, in which a colleague said that she had heard that it still occurs, and PMs are choosing to download a file, edit, and upload ....defeating the whole point of SHAREpoint.

I have had a little play in Teams, and it appears that Team owners are unable to check in a document that they did not Check Out.

This really surprises me, as it seems a fairly obvious function for a Team Owner (although, I have found very little difference between an Owner and Member permissions, which seems to be a huge flaw in the Teams Model).

Working in a company with a presence in different countries, the Admin function is at a much higher (dare I say, inaccessible) level.  IMO this is not a practical solution, and should be managed at a Team level.

NB I believe the Team Level equates to a role with Sharepoint Site privilege's, which is what I would expect Owners to have.

Can someone provide a categorical answer as to who is able to override Check Out?

NB Being a large organisation, I have no sight of the overall implementation of Modern O365.  If it is 'Admin', would you mind explaining what Admin is in this context?

[#2]

@ChrizK Hi, a very brief answer to your question. But here goes. The whole "check out / check in" scenario is usually used when not wanting the built-in co-authoring which comes with O365. So you use the former when you want to make sure no one else can edit the object.

If a check out is made then an admin can discard the check out, as it's being locked for editing (for ex. if someone hasn't checked it back in and is unavailable).

[#3]

Thanks for your response @ChristianBergstrom ,

I understand the concept of Checking, my question is more so, who/what is 'Admin'?

As discussed, I believe this should be a Team owner, but this does not appear to be the case.

Can a 'user' (I guess, as defined by Outlook/Exchange, or perhaps Active Directory?) become a site owner to perform this role?

The problem being, I have no sight of 'high level' Admin in a multi-national company.  Less so, as the IT function is not local.  In a world of amalgamation, this is obviously not uncommon, hence my point of view that a Team Owner should have the ability to Discard Check In.

I would appreciate an explanation of what Admin is in this regard, and if the Discard ability can be delegated to a 'mere user'.

[#4]

I have half answered my question.  I have opened Library Settings > Manage Files which have no checked in version (you need to be viewing Documents to see Library Settings).  I was prompted to request permissions to view this option.  I thought this request would go to Global Admin, but strangely, it went to one of my colleagues.  I find this strange, as I thought I was listed as an owner of the site, but he accepted it, and I received an email "Administrator has responded to your request, Good news. You now have access to ...".

Now that I have access, I see a list of all Checked Out Files.  Instead of choosing to override checkout (check-in/discard), it appears I have to Take Ownership of a file.

I am guessing this takes ownership of the pending changes, rather than the last checked in file.  Not quite what I had in mind, but it is a workable solution.

This would answer my question, but I have since found a file that is locked by check out from SHAREPOINT/system.  This file is not shown in the list of Checked Out Files, and so I am trying to find a way to contact the elusive Global Admin.

NB the file is MP4, I can see properties of Duration, Bit Rate, but I cannot open in Teams as it is reported as having no content, and Chrome just says that the video can't be played.