How to sign out a user from a SharePoint page

Sarah Sittrop (Martin) 0 Reputation points
2026-10-16T20:08:00.85+00:00

I have a colleague who is on vacation and they are showing as being checked on our SharePoint home page. How do I check them out?

Microsoft 365 and Office | SharePoint | For business | Other
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  1. AI answer

    2026-10-16T20:08:11.8933333+00:00

    If the colleague has a file checked out in a SharePoint library, a site or library administrator can use the Override Check Out permission to either check in the document or discard the check out.

    Important: overriding someone else’s check-out can cause version conflicts if that person has local changes that were never uploaded. Those changes may need to be reconciled manually or by using comparison tools.

    If the issue is that the person appears as signed in or active on a SharePoint page, the available context does not provide a way to manually sign out one specific user from a page. The documented sign-out control is idle session sign-out, which applies to the entire organization, not to a specific user.

    To configure idle session sign-out for SharePoint and OneDrive:

    1. Go to Access control in the SharePoint admin center.
    2. Select Idle session sign-out.
    3. Turn on Sign out inactive users automatically.
    4. Choose when users are signed out and how much warning they receive.
    5. Select Save.

    This setting applies organization-wide and cannot be set for specific sites or users.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  2. Kai-L 20,130 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-10-16T21:16:08.9566667+00:00

    Hi Sarah,

    Thank you for posting your question on Microsoft Q&A. If your colleague has a page or document checked out, a SharePoint administrator can: 

    1. Open the Site Pages (or relevant) library. 
    2. Locate the checked-out item. 
    3. Select More actions (...). 
    4. Choose Check In.

    Please note that discarding a check-out may remove any unsaved changes. 

    If you are referring to the user appearing as active or signed in on the SharePoint home page, SharePoint does not provide a way to manually sign out a specific user. 

    Kind regards

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