SharePoint Site is Read-only to Everyone: Including Farm Administrator, Site Collection Owner

Ever faced this odd problem? where SharePoint Site is read-only to every one.. Including Farm Administrator, Site Collection Administrator.. They would only have basic permissions & various OK buttons were greyed out.

This is because Sharepoint site collection/database into Read Only mode! To unlock the Sharepoint site either use the Central Admin Site quota page or stsadm.

Unlock a Site Collection through SharePoint Central Administration

Go to Application Management >> SharePoint Site Management >> Site collection quotas and locks >> Select the correct web application and site collection >> Set the lock status of the collection (it most likely will be set to “Read-only”, and you’ll need to move that radio button to “Not locked”).

SharePoint Site is Read-Only

Stsadm way to unlock a Site in SharePoint
stsadm -o -setsitelock -url https://teamsites.Crescent.com/sites/abc -lock None

That’s all!

Tail:  This may happen when the content Database is in read-only mode or in Single user Mode!

By the way, If you want to set a Site collection to Read-only you can use the above option. Just set the lock status to  “Read-only”.

Want to Set the Entire SharePoint Web Application, Farm to Read-only? Refer my another article: Set SharePoint Web Application or Farm to Read Only Mode

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - SharePoint Expert with Two decades of SharePoint Experience. Love to Share my knowledge and experience with the SharePoint community, through real-time articles!

4 thoughts on “SharePoint Site is Read-only to Everyone: Including Farm Administrator, Site Collection Owner

  • Can’t locate Application Management on computer. Under Microsoft 2013 –> Sharepoint designer 2013

    Reply
  • How to make a list read only , including site admin, site owner

    Reply
    • Break the Inheritance remove everyone and Grant read-only rights. That’s the only way, I believe.

      Reply
  • Wow! This was a Real time saver.

    Reply

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