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P4 Visual Client (P4V) Documentation | 2026.1

# Submit (Check in) files

When you mark files for add or delete, check them out, integrate them, or schedule them for resolve, the files are added to changelists. P4 Server changelists are lists of actions to be performed on files. The actions in the changelist are performed when you submit To send a pending changelist from the client workspace to the depot. the changelist. Pending A unit of versioned work that is not submitted. A changelist is created when you check out any file. A changelist is pending until you submit or revert the change. changelists are changelists that have yet to be submitted. Changelists are assigned unique numbers by P4 Server. In addition, a default changelist is maintained for each client workspace. If submission of the default changelist fails, P4 Server assigns it a number.

## View changelists

To display changelists, go to View > Pending changelists or View > Submitted changelists. P4V displays the Pending or Submitted tab in the right pane, which include a list view of changelists and details for selected changelists at the bottom.

To filter the displayed changelists, use the Filter expansion pane in either the Pending or Submitted tabs. You can filter by the following conditions:

- User: searches for changelists by the user who created them. Enter a user ID or Current user.
- Workspace: searches for changelists by the workspace used to create them. Enter a workspace name or Current workspace.
- Files match any of the following file paths: searches for changelists that include files in any of the paths that you enter. Drag the file from the Tree pane to populate the field with its file path, or click the Construct a file path icon to open the File Path Builder.

For more information about file filters and the File Path Builder, see Searching and Filtering.

## Change ownership

The Change Ownership option enables you to transfer a pending changelist including its shelved files to another user and/or workspace. After ownership changes, the new owner can unshelve, reshelve, or submit those files as if they created the changelist. This is essential because only the changelist owner can reshelve or delete shelved files.

Use the Change Ownership option when transferring in‑progress work to another user, enabling them to continue the task without recreating or re‑shelving files. This approach also helps when unshelving fails across different streams or workspaces due to file(s) not in client view errors. Changing ownership to the destination user and workspace resolves these issues by aligning the changelist with the correct client view. Additionally, Change Ownership is useful during code reviews or cross‑platform testing scenarios where the reviewer or tester needs to own and iterate on the shelved files directly rather than relying on the original developer to manage updates.

To use the Change Ownership option:

1. Right‑click a pending changelist and select Change Ownership.

   The Change Ownership dialog box opens.

2. Specify the new user and workspace.

   Click Confirm to save your changes.

The changelist now belongs to the specified user and/or workspace.

## Submit changelists

When you are done working with the files in your changelist, you submit the changelist. In P4V, the opposite of check out is submit, not check in.

You can submit a changelist by right-clicking the file name in the Tree pane or by selecting a pending changelist from the Pending tab.

If a pending changelist includes shelved files, you first need to unshelve or delete those files, either prior to trying to submit the changelist or from the Submit dialog box.

To submit individual files:

1. Right-click the files in the depot or workspace pane and choose Submit…​.

2. In the Submit dialog box, enter a description, select files, and (optionally) attach jobs.

   The Description field accepts HTML tags for marking up and hyperlinking text. For details, see Format text in Description fields.

   The Choose Files to Submit pane, displays the total number of files selected in a changelist along with their combined size in KB. You can view the size of each individual file in the Size column.

3. Click Submit.

To submit an existing changelist:

1. Go to the Pending tab.
2. Filter for and select the changelist by double-clicking it.
3. In the Submit dialog box, enter a description, select files, and (optionally) attach jobs.

   The Choose Files to Submit pane, displays the total number of files selected in a changelist along with their combined size in KB. You can view the size of each individual file in the Size column.

4. If the changelist includes any shelved files, you need to delete or unshelve them before you can submit the changelist. Do any of the following:

   - Delete shelved files: Above the Shelved files area, click Delete selected.

   - Unshelve shelved files: In the Shelved files area, right-click the files and select Unshelve.

     In the Unshelve dialog box, edit as needed and click Unshelve.

   Alternatively, you can submit the shelved files directly prior to submitting the changelist.

5. Click Submit.

To edit the description of a submitted changelist:

1. Right-click the changelist and choose Edit Submitted Changelist.

2. In the Submit dialog box, edit the description.

   Note

   Only the submitter of a changelist can edit its description.

To move all files from one pending changelist to another:

Right-click the changelist and select Move All Files to Another Changelist.

To move a file from one pending changelist to another:

1. Expand the source changelist.

2. Do one of the following:

   - Drag the file to the target changelist.
   - Right-click the file or files and select Move to Another Changelist.

## Reverse a changelist submission

You can restore the state of a file or folder as follows:

- Back out a single change or a range of changes by specifying a changelist, revision number, date/time, or label, or a range of the same, and keep subsequent changes.
- Roll back to the state of a given changelist, date/time, or revision number.

For details, see Undo changes.

## Restrict access to a changelist

To restrict who can see a changelist, select the Restrict Access to Changelist option when editing a pending or submitted changelist.

By default, all users can view a pending or submitted changelist, regardless of whether they are permitted access to the files in the changelist by the protections table.

The visibility of restricted changelists:

- Pending changelists: Visible only to owner, regardless of whether other users have access to checked-out files.
- Pending changelists containing shelved files: Users with list (or higher) permission (as specified in the protection table) to one or more of the shelved files can list those files and read the changelist description.
- Submitted changelists: Users with list (or higher) permission (as specified in the protection table) to one or more of the submitted files can list those files and read the changelist description.

## Configure changelist display

To minimize the time it takes P4V to handle very large changelists, limit the number of files displayed in a changelist by doing the following:

1. Go to P4V > Preferences (Mac) or Edit > Preferences (Windows).
2. Click Server Data.
3. In the Maximum number of files displayed per changelist field, enter the number of files to display in a changelist.

You can still submit changelists with more than the specified number of files, but the file lists are displayed as follows:

- Pending and Submitted tabs display "There are # files in this changelist."
- Details tab displays the list of files in a simple text box (with no P4V file badges).

## View quick summary of a changelist

You can view a quick summary of either a pending or submitted changelist from the Pending or Submitted tab in the tab bar of the details pane (below the Submitted or Pending list). To view the item count for Open Files, Files, and Jobs sub-tabs, select the Show item count on tabs for the detail sections option in the Display category in the Preferences dialog box. Starting with P4V 2025.4, this option is enabled by default for new users. To learn more, see Display preferences.

- Details tab shows the changelist’s creation date, the user who created it, and a brief description of the changes.

- Open Files lists all files currently checked out in a pending changelist.

- Files lists all files submitted in the changelist.

- Jobs displays any jobs linked to the changelist.

- Diff Summary shows a summary of changes made to the selected files.

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