Can't Unlock Preference Panes

Deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist and rebooting did it for me in mavericks.

Thanks a lot. This worked me.

I was scratching my head all day when the pref pane for accessibility automatically locks itself after I authenticate successfully.

Thanks it worked phew i was thinking to reinstall the os

thanks heaps 😀

I had the same problem too but I managed to fix it by creating a user password. Try changing your password if you already have one.

If you cant unlock preference panes follow:

Go System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General
Click Change Password > Change password (again)

Technically you don't have password for now, that's why doesn't it work.
Make a new password > Verify > Change Password
Then click the lock to make changes. That's all.

I see you are the latest person with this problem. I bet you left the Administrator password for your iMac blank. iMac warns you that this isn't a good idea, but you went ahead with an empty Administrator password anyway, like I did. I called Applecare about this and we eventually (40 min) determined that everything works if you change the password to a non-empty answer, like "test". I did that, the little padlock unlocked, changed the settings and then returned the Administrator password to nothing. This appears to be a software bug that the engineers need to address in their next update.

Hi,

I have the same problem, but on 10.5.8. I can't unlock that padlock, and therefore can't perform any admin tasks.

Here are more details about what I am going through : system preferences pane not unlocking

Could anyone please help me?

Thanks a lot.