Editing a Library without checking out

Question

Is it important to check out before editing a Library? What happens if I don't check out while editing a Library? Will that make any difference?

Answer 1

Is it important to check out before editing a Library?

It depends on your Library setting at Version Settings > Require Check Out > Yes. Check out is used to specify whether users must check out documents before they can make changes to documents in the document library.

The main purpose of enabling Check Out is if you want to ensure that when you are making changes to a file on a site, no one one else can edit it.

What happens if I don't check out while editing a Library?

If you enable Require Check out, then you can't make edits without checking a document out. If you tried to check out this file and edit it while someone else is editing it, you will get a message informing you that the file is already checked out by another user.

For more details check Check out, check in, or discard changes to files in a library