Fixing the Check-out failed error in Joomla

From time to time you may encounter a Joomla error that says “Check-out failed with the following error: The user checking out does not match the user who checked out the item.” followed by “You are not permitted to use that link to directly access that page”.

There is actually a really simple, albeit not that obvious, fix for this error – to edit the content to are trying to make changes to you need to “unlock” or “Check-out” the content to be able to make changes, this is done by clicking the padlock icon next to the content name or editor link, the icon you’re looking for looks like this: 

Once you’re unlocked the content you can go ahead and make your changes.