Page is checked out by another user. How can I force check-in or discard?

Question

A page has been checked out by someone who I am not able to contact. I need to update the page but cannot check it out until the current check-out is finished.

How can I force the current check-out to be discarded?

Answer 1

If you have administrative rights, it is possible to override the check-out via the View All Site Content page:

1. Site Actions
2. View All Site Content
3. Pages
4. Hover the item you want to check out, and from the context-menu (arrow-down next to the filename), choose "Discard Check Out"

It is also possible to perform this routine through SharePoint Designer.

(Thanks to Christian Nesmark via StackOverflow)

Answer 2

You can use SPFile.UndoCheckOut Method achieve this.

More on this here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spfile.undocheckout.aspx