Does AEM Sites have check-in/check-out functionality?

[AlexNathanson]

Wondering if AEM Sites (cloud services edition) has check-in/check-out capabilities to prevent multiple editors from overwriting changes to a content page.  When a page is opened in edit mode or properties are opened, is there any concept of locking that page to prevent someone else from opening and modifying at the same time?  Since there are no explicit "saves" of the page, what happens if 2 editors both have a content page open for editing?  

Thanks.

[SantoshSai · Accepted solution]

Hi @AlexNathanson,

Unfortunately, there is no check-in/check-out capabilities in AEM. That means:

• When Editor A opens a page in edit mode, Editor B can still open that same page at the same time.

• AEM does not “lock” the page for exclusive editing just because someone is in the page editor or properties dialog.

• This applies to both page content editing and page properties.

So, what sappens if two people edit the same page?

• AEM writes changes on-the-fly as you make edits (there is no “save” button for the page itself - changes are persisted almost immediately in the repository).

• If Editor A changes a component and Editor B changes the same component or property later, the last saved change wins - effectively overwriting the previous one.

• There’s no merge conflict resolution UI for content edits - it’s a silent overwrite.

You can use existing “Soft Lock” mechanisms

While there’s no strict lock, AEM has a few related features:

• Page Locking (Manual) - You can manually lock a page via the Sites console (Lock option). This prevents any changes (including by you) until it’s unlocked. But this is an explicit action - it’s not automatic when you start editing.

Example: 

• User A opens the page in edit mode.

  • The system automatically locks the page for User A.

  • User A can freely edit the page.

• User B tries to open the same page for editing while User A is still editing.

  • User B sees a warning: “This page is locked by User A.”

  • User B can only open the page in read-only mode and cannot make changes.

• When User A finishes editing, they unlock the page (manually or by closing the editor).

  • The lock is removed.

• Now, User B can open the page in edit mode and make their changes, which locks the page for User B.

• Asset Check-Out - In the DAM, assets can be “checked out” to prevent changes, but that’s only for assets, not for pages.

• Workflow Control - Some teams use a workflow step (like “Assign to User”) to indicate ownership before editing.

Refernce: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-65/content/sites/authoring/authoring/e...

[Shiv_Prakash_Patel]

Hi @AlexNathanson ,

In AEM Sites (Cloud Service), there is no built-in automatic check-in/check-out process. This means:

• If one author opens a page to edit, another author can also open and modify it at the same time.

• The system does not lock a page automatically when it is in the page editor or properties panel.

• This applies to both editing page content and updating page properties.

What happens when two authors edit the same page?

• All edits are saved automatically as they are made — there is no save button.

• If two people change the same component or field, the most recent save will overwrite the earlier change.

• There is no merge conflict notification — the first change is lost without warning.

How to avoid overwriting each other’s work

• Manual Page Locking – From the Sites console or Page Info, lock the page before editing. While locked, others see:
  “This page is locked by [User Name]” and can only open it in read-only mode.

• Workflows – Use steps like “Assign to User” to give a single editor control over the page.

• Team Guidelines – Make it standard practice to lock pages before making major edits.

• Asset Check-Out – For DAM assets, check-out can prevent concurrent edits, but this feature does not apply to pages.

References :

The AEM Page Editor

Mapping Pages

[Harwinder-singh]

@AlexNathanson AEM is backed by Java content repository(JCR) and as such any resource update works on an 'eventual consistency' concept. So if you have multiple updates on a resource, they will be combined (as best as possible by JCR). Coming to AEM Pages, there is an explicit way to lock pages to prevent any other changes on the page. Other than that I dont think there is any OOTB way to check-in /check-out pages.

[Jörg_Hoh]

You can lock a page, and that should prevent it from being modified by someone else. 

Normally saves are not done on a page level (except for page properties), but only on component level, that means that multiple changes can happen and not cause issues. But the usual recommendation is to ensure by the content editing process that only 1 editor is editing a page. 

And in my experience and from what I heard this works very well in most cases, and that locking is rarely used.

(The problem is locking is, that you have to unlock it. And if you forget to unlock it, an admin needs to perform that unlock to allow anyone else to perform a change...)