>Fairoze<
Level 1 (8 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Can't Unlock Lock in System Preferences

When I go to System Preferences the lock does not unlock.

When I click on the the lock it says "Authenticating" and it just stuck like that the whole time.

This is an image of it:

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-10 at 19.53.00.png

 

I even tried to upgrade to OS X El Capitan but the OS X El Capitan installer just froze and did not respond for hours.

I tried restarting and changing the password.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), null

Posted on Aug 10, 2016 12:15 PM

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>Fairoze<

Q: Can't Unlock Lock in System Preferences

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  • Helpful answers

  • by steven_a1,

    steven_a1 steven_a1 Aug 11, 2016 9:15 AM in response to >Fairoze<
    Community Specialists
    Aug 11, 2016 9:15 AM in response to >Fairoze<

    Greetings >Fairoze<,

    It appears you're having issues unlocking your Security & Privacy settings on your iMac running OS X Yosemite. Since you need to be able to access that information, I'll be more than glad to help. Good job on the steps you've already tried as well. Be sure to test the issue after each step.

    Try safe mode if your Mac doesn‘t finish starting up -- I'll need your help getting to the source of the problem. Even though your iMac starts up, starting in Safe Mode will make sure that everything is starting up correctly.

    ​How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac -- If you're still not able to change settings in Security & Privacy, testing with another user account will let us know if this is a problem with just your account or if it's system wide on your iMac.

     

    Take care and thanks for using Apple Support Communities!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 11, 2016 10:17 AM in response to >Fairoze<
    Level 9 (71,364 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 11, 2016 10:17 AM in response to >Fairoze<

    Might be a corrupt .plist.

     

    Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

     

    Quit the application.

     

    Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J.  When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.  Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist.  Move the .plist to your desktop.

     

    Restart the computer, open the application, and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

     

    If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

     

    Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

  • by >Fairoze<,

    >Fairoze< >Fairoze< Aug 12, 2016 10:03 AM in response to steven_a1
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 12, 2016 10:03 AM in response to steven_a1

    Sorry Steven but this did not work I tried to make an account it did not work and also tried to start it up in safe mode then normal mode and it did not work. Thank you Steven I will try to ask a Apple Software engineer. Bye

  • by >Fairoze<,

    >Fairoze< >Fairoze< Aug 12, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 12, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Eric Root

    Eric Root this did not work mate. Thank you for your cooperation Eric.

    It was not a corrupt .plist.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 13, 2016 11:43 AM in response to >Fairoze<
    Level 9 (71,364 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 13, 2016 11:43 AM in response to >Fairoze<

    You are welcome.

     

    User File Ownership - Reset   see post by Linc Davis

     

    You may need to rebuild permissions on your user account. To do this,boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type:  ‘resetpassword’ (without the ’s), hit return, and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.   

     

    Repair User Permissions


     

    User/File Permissions - How to Fix

  • by >Fairoze<,

    >Fairoze< >Fairoze< Aug 14, 2016 8:11 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 14, 2016 8:11 AM in response to Eric Root

    Eric this did not work but thank you for helping I really appreciate it. Thanks.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 14, 2016 8:15 AM in response to >Fairoze<
    Level 9 (71,364 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 14, 2016 8:15 AM in response to >Fairoze<

    You are welcome. Try running the combo update. It installs all previous updates plus the new one, which can replace any files that may have become corrupted. If necessary, run it in the Safe Mode or another admin account.

     

    10.10.5 Combo Update