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A document that is not a template, a document that I own is locked by the template owner and I can't change it.

I did experiment for a while with it being a template but reverted back so I could discuss with colleagues before making that change.

How can I unlock this object… oddly there are many and this is the only one I know of that’s magically locked. I have no reason to do that on purpose, the opposite is true that I need layers and objects not locked so people can use the template as I’ve designed it to be used.

Hi ​@Mark E 

It looks like you’ve run into a known Lucidchart quirk where template locks sometimes persist even after reverting the doc back to a normal document.

Try Arrange → Unlock all or check the Layers panel for any padlocks. If that doesn’t clear it, make a copy of the document, that usually removes the hidden template locks. Others in the Lucid Community have seen the same issue and were able to unlock by following these steps to learn more - Locked template with uneditable central object (frame) - find owner to change permissions | Community

Hope this helps - Happy to help further!!
Thank you very much and have a great one!
Warm regards


Thank Huma,

TLDR: is that almost nothing changed. 


When I visit Arrange… everything is grey except “auto layout”.

I saw the find owner link earlier (

) and I’m the owner, except that maybe Lucid has “forgotten”. This document is part of a folder hierarchy that’s shared. There are 2 people with edit/share permissions and I’m one of them. There are a few others with edit and several more with view or comment. I have to go up to “Team Folders”  to see the list of collaborators. 

Lucid got rid of copy/paste (ctrl-c/v) but there’s still a duplicate. I did that and now when I do Arrange → Unlock I see “lock disabled by template owners” and there are checks adjacent to lock, lock size and position, lock style, and lock content but NOT “force object to front”. I still have the ability to select “auto layout” → hierarchy but not for grid… which is the current layout.


Hi ​@Mark E 

It looks like the document is still carrying hidden template metadata. that’s why you’re seeing ‘lock disabled by template owners’ even though you’re listed as the owner. This happens when a doc was once a template, and the lock states didn’t fully clear.

  • Kindly coordinate with the template owner to unlock or adjust it. Otherwise, the simplest workaround is to create a new document or copy the content into one so it’s fully independent of the old template locks

Try making a copy of the file using the 'File → Make a copy' option, rather than simply duplicating it within the folder. If locks still remain, select all objects and copy them into a brand-new, blank document. This should effectively take away any hidden template locks, restoring full arrange and unlock functionality.

Best Regards


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