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January 28, 2012

How to stop Lion from automatically locking your files

This post is just a short tip that I figured out earlier today. If you're running Mac OS X Lion, you'll notice that files which haven't been modified lately are automatically locked. This can prove particularly annoying if you're modifying a large number of system files, which is necessary from time to time when you're running a Hackintosh. Read past the break for a (very) short tutorial on fixing this issue.

Rather than having to unlock all of your files manually, you can simply turn off automatic unlocking of files in System Preferences (not a big surprise, I suppose). Open the System Preferences, go to Time Machine preferences, and uncheck "Lock documents ___ after last edit".


That's all there is to it. File unlocking is supposedly designed to prevent accidental auto saves, but if you're intentionally trying to save a lot of locked files, it can get really tedious (for example, if you're attempting my workaround for stretched Hackintosh bootscreens).