'Your network settings have been changed by another app' - THE SOLUTION

I'll double check that she re-locked the icon and report. Thanks again!

thanks for the solution jona. it worked! the message box stopped appearing when i accessed network preferences.

i had a follow up question/issue about the security update and its impact on the OS. of the four files you listed for removal in the SystemConfiguration sub-directory i had all but one: com.apple.nat.plist

the list of files in the sub-directory were:

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist
com.apple.boot.plist
com.apple.powermanagement.plist

does the absence of the com.apple.nat.plist and the presence of com.apple.boot.plist and com.apple.powermanagement.plist represent a requirement for further "tweaking"?

the reason why i ask is when i attempt to connect to the internet via built-in ethernet/ppoe (after i have re-entered network settings) the following message is appearing:

confirm access to keychain pppd wants permission to use the "PPP Password" item from your keychain

could this be another issue related to the security updates?

many thanks for your previous posting/solution. it was extremely helpful.

Just to be helpful. I think you'll get more attention directed to this if you make this a new post. I don't think Jona's on the scene any longer and I don't know how many people who might be able to help are paying that much attention any longer to this, by now, old thread.

I'm having the same problem but when I go to my Library/preferences/SystemConfiguration, I see
preferences.plist.system_default
preferences.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

I tried the fix and it didn't work. Help!!! It's driving me crazy. Thanks.

Thanks very much for posting this solution!

Many thanks to all for their advice!

The following worked for me (10.4.11):

As advised, I went to System Preferences > Security and clicked the box Require Password To Unlock Each Secure System Preference, then clicked the lock to prevent further changes. Then, when I went to Location > Edit locations, the Edit command was dimmed, of course - I would have had to click the lock to make changes. However this was not necessary - the popup was gone!

I guess nobody is interested in this problem because there was no response. But just for the record I'll post how I solved it!
I found a couple of other problems too so I decided to reinstall 10.3.nothing from the disc. Then update everything to 10.3.11 or whatever. It all worked out fine.
So that's it.
George

Hi George, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

I guess nobody is interested in this problem because there was no response.

No, I suspect it's because this is such a long thread with more than a hundred people posting... it takes a good 15 minutes to load this thread on my Dial-up account, so I don't do it very often when they are this huge.

It's quite acceptable, even preferable to start a new topic of your own, it will get more individualized attention, and many more helpers!
But glad you solved it and thanks for the report too! 🙂

I trashed the preferences as suggested here and the problem went away after a reboot. Of course I had to make a new network location afterwords. Thank-you

PROBLEM: The network control panel is stuck in a loop, with a recurrent error "network setting are being changed by another application". If click on ok it pops up again. The only way to get around it is to put the cursor on the assist me button and hit return and quickly hit the mouse button. Once in the assistant hit the cancel button, to get out of the loop, it will work fine, but the next time you open the network control panel it will repeat. Removing the network and airport plist in the library has no effect. Removing the network config plist will not help either.

SOLUTION: Phil from Apple called at 7 and figured it out.

The plist to reset the network pane is in the system level "library" in "preference" folder in the folder called "system configuration". The one to delete is called "preference.plist". Delete it and restart the computer.

Now the network settings are empty and you have to go to location "automatic" and show "network port configurations" and un-check all the boxes and recheck them.

NOTE: It will not reset until you do that part. Than you can go to location "automatic" and "network status" and the ports should show up as they are connected. That seems to have fixed it.

Of course this deletes all the prior connection settings you had, only do this if you have network control panel issues.

Just encountered "Your network settings have been changed by another app" and so glad that your solution was top of the discussion list. No searching - just applied your painless solution. Wonderful. Thank you again

Yay!!!!!!!!! Was just browsing , came across this network settings problem, tried the 'enter password' solution and it has gone. at last. This is so brilliant. Thanks all.

I don't have those files in my Library:Preferences folder. Now what?

Hi Gordon, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

Feel free to start a new topic to attract more helpers to your particular situation, here's a link if as is often the case, it's hard to find out where to do it...

http://discussions.apple.com/post!default.jspa?forumID=752

But I think you must be looking in the wrong Library Folder, we have at least three...

Library/

System/Library/

Users/YourUserName/Library/

Everything you need to do has been summarized nicely here in easy to follow steps:
http://www.appleinkmagazine.com/?cat=6