I don’t think that is a wild guess T.
I think you are right on the money.
Puddles, it might be that the rig file has an action attached to the rig when you are linking it in.
This data can’t be edited (because it’s not actually in the current file)
If Tanya’s solution works. Go into the rig file and click the X next to that action in the Action Editor.
That way it won’t be pushed into your linked files.
Hope that makes sense.