Why does Lion lock files?

It's tied to the new document versioning feature. I've recently seen some articles on how to shut the locking off, but it doesn't bother me.

Logically, the thought is that if it hasn't been modified in more that 2 weeks, you may not want to wipe it out with accidental changes.

It does bother me, I'm finding it really annoying to have to click to 'unlock' files that I didn't lock and have become locked for no good reason. This is one of a number of things I'm finding annoying enough to make me want to downgrade back to Snow Leopard. New features irritating you isn't something we're used to from the Apple we know and love. Thanks for the mention of switching it off - I'm off to investigate.

Have a look at the Time Machine options:

Regards,

Colin R.

Thanks Colin, I've unticked 'lock documents'. Why does that have an effect even when TM is switched off?

Have moved this one over to the list of annoying features that I have been able to switch off. Any news on the mono sidebar icons, the iCal fipping pages or the very surprising alert panels?

I'm very bothered by the locked files stuff, for it interrupts my workflow for reasons I do not understand. I'm responsible enough to not delete valuable files and even if I would I still have backups: short term, long term, in-home and out-of-home.

I did uncheck the lock option in time machine, but that does not fix all files instantly. Also, when I get some PDF's out of an email (sent by a known contact of even myself) Lion goes: "file is locked because it is an email attachment." so what? I haven't seen a harmful file in all my 4 years of apple use. Seeing one would almost be interesting rather than upsetting.

So: Any change I can turn of locking entirely? terminal commands, system file alterations, all fine by me.

Thanks for reading!

mitch

Did you get anywhere in your search for a way to turn off locking entirely?

I also have a growing list of Lion 'improvements' which are disruptive to workflow.

Constantly suggesting i duplicate files being top of that list. : /

R.

thanks!

Unfortunately, no.

But come to think of it, the problem hasn't occurred much with me since august. Maybe the checkbox had some delayed effects after all? - good luck

I am so disgruntled with Lion and this is just one more to add to the large list. I have unticked the "locked" checkbox in TimeMachine (actually, it was already unticked when I encountered the problem). When I view the 'Get Info' box, it doesn't even show my PDF as being locked, yet Preview keeps telling me that it is and therefore I cannot save my combined PDF. Very very incredibly annoying as this is a feature I used quite often in earlier versions!!!!!!!!! Any one have any thoughts?!

mitchymitch wrote:

. . .

I did uncheck the lock option in time machine, but that does not fix all files instantly.

No, it won't. It just changes the behavior in the future.

Whitecity wrote:

. . .

The only solution seems to be to upgrade to Snow Leopard.

Turning it off might be a tiny bit easier. Time Machine Preferences > Options.

I still don't understand the rationale for file locking. I just don't see the use case where it could be a valuable feature.

I had my doubts at first, but have grown to like it, since it prevented me from accidentally changing files a couple of times. But if you don't like it, turn it off.

Whitecity wrote:

That does not turn it off completey - for instance, I have a workflow where I use VueScan to scan to Preview - when the doc comes up in preview, it is locked, even though I have the time machine option set to off.

Are you saying it's still locking documents, or you're still finding documents that were locked before you turned it off?

My question is still though, with versioning, what is the point in locking? If you edit a doc by mistake, you can just revert.

If you notice it.