Understanding locked Observation Profile edits
Open a profile already used by a project and parts of it are greyed out, with a banner explaining why.
What the banner means
This profile is used by N project(s). Additions are allowed, but existing classes, fields, options, and field types cannot be changed.
Once observations have been recorded against a profile, changing its structure would change what those observations mean. If a field called Crack width (mm) became Crack severity, every value already recorded would be wrong, with no way to tell.
So an in-use profile is add-only.
What you can and cannot do
| You can | You cannot |
| Add a new class | Rename or delete an existing class |
| Add a new field to any class | Rename or delete an existing field |
| Add a new option to a select field | Rename or remove an existing option |
| Change colours | Change a field's type |
| Rename the profile itself | Change the profile's language |
Anything you add is available immediately to every project using the profile. Nothing already recorded is affected.
When it locks
As soon as one project uses the profile. The banner names how many.
If you need to change something anyway
Add a replacement and stop using the old one. Add the corrected field, and leave the old one in place holding its historical values. Inspectors fill in the new one from now on.
Awkward, but it is the only approach that does not rewrite the meaning of past inspections.
For a genuinely fresh start, create a new profile and point new projects at it. Existing projects keep theirs. See Choosing the Observation Profile for a project.
Language is fixed from the start
A profile's language cannot be changed after creation, in use or not. Creating a profile in the wrong language means creating a new one.
Why is this locked when no project uses it?
| What you see | What it means |
| Everything is locked, no banner | You lack workspace-admin rights, so you are viewing rather than editing. |
| The banner appears but I deleted those projects | Deleted projects may still count. Check the number in the banner. |
| The language dropdown is always disabled | Language is set at creation and never changes. |
| I can add but not reorder | Reordering existing items counts as changing them. |