All sites are read only, even for site administrators

Question

Every site in the collection is now read-only. I can still change settings in the central admin site but am unsure what has changed.

This affects everyone, users with write permission, even site administrators.

I've checked non of the service accounts have expired passwords, the SQL permissions are OK, even adding new users to Windows and assigning them to the SharePoint users group does not allow access when it should.

We have a single server running one site collection with about 8 sites and the central admin site.

I'm not sure if this is down to the cock up with the August CU and SP1 install thats just happened. I've now got SP1 on and the

I'm not a full time SharePoint admin either, its defiantly part time.

EDIT: Sorry, yes the databases were not set to read only, what I should have said is that the correct service accounts are allocated to the correct databases & content databases

Answer 1

You can set the site collection to Read-Only from CA, so it is possible that someone did this:

CA > Application Management > Site Collections section > Configure Quotas and Locks > Select site collection > check if it is set to Read Only

I think its default that site collections are set to read only during backup, so maybe you have a failed backup that didnt get to set the site collection back to normal?

More here

Answer 2

Check Disk Space. If it runs too low, the farm will go read-only

Answer 3

Sometimes, a DBA might switch the database to Read-Only. It would have the same effect.

Answer 4

Check this link

http://parmeshwarjadhao.blogspot.in/2014/12/sharepoint-site-suddenly-read-only-even.html

1. Central Administration -> Site Collection Quotas and Locks.
2. Select your site collection

One of the following might be enforced: Adding content prevented, Read-only or No access. If not, this answer doesn't apply. Check the content database status in SQL Server Management Studio, as it could be switched to Read-only as well.

3. Change the Site Lock Information radio button from “Read-only” to “Not locked”
4. OK the changes