If Word tells you a document is locked for editing by another user — including, confusingly, sometimes showing your own name as the "other user" — this is almost always caused by a leftover temporary ownership file, not an actual conflict with anyone currently using the document.
Why it happens
Like Excel, Word creates a small hidden temporary file when you open a document — prefixed with ~$, so opening report.docx creates a hidden ~$report.docx file in the same folder. This file marks the document as currently in use and normally deletes itself the moment you close Word properly.
If Word quits unexpectedly — a crash, forced shutdown, a second instance of Word running in the background, or a network interruption while editing a file on a shared drive — that temp file can get left behind, and Word continues to believe the document is locked even though nobody actually has it open anymore.
Fix: delete the leftover lock file
- Close Word completely on every device that might have had the file open
- Open File Explorer and go to the folder containing the document
- Enable hidden files if you haven't already: View → Show → Hidden items
- Find the file starting with
~$followed by your document's name - Delete it
- Reopen your document — it should open normally
If that doesn't work: check for a lingering Word process
- Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
- Look for any WINWORD.EXE processes running, even with no visible Word window open
- End any you find
- Try opening the document again
If it's genuinely open by someone else
If the document is on a shared drive or SharePoint and really is open by another person right now, the message is accurate. Either ask them directly to close it, or — if the file is on SharePoint/OneDrive rather than a traditional network drive — check whether real-time co-authoring is available and enabled, which lets multiple people edit simultaneously instead of locking the file to one person at a time.