All of a sudden, Mountain Lion is asking for my password every time I want to delete a file. Anyone know why?
iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion
Open Terminal and type:
sudo rm -ri ~/.Trashes
Open Terminal and type:
sudo rm -ri ~/.Trashes
Thanks mende1 but that didn't help.
When you delete something, is it in Trash?
It asks for my password when I move files to the trash and when I want to empty the trash. Everything in my Keychain Access settings is set to remember my password and my preferences are not set to have to authenticate anything except installing apps, etc. This happened all of a sudden yesterday and I have been using ML since it first came out without this issue.
Open Disk Utility and repair permissions
Trying that although I used Onyx to repair permissions this morning. FYI, the message I am getting is "Finder wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this."
If you place a file in the Trash that you do not explicitly own (e.g. a system file), attempts to empty the trash will result in a password prompt. This is a safeguard. Similarly, if you move the contents of ~/Library/Caches to trash and then attempt to empty the trash without a reboot beforehand, you will see that some of the files in the Trash are presently accessed by running system or application processes.
The command-line rm command is for those who have experienced its bite and respect its power. Otherwise, you may wish to just empty the trash from the dock either before or after a reboot -- depending on the Trash contents.
Choose your Home folder "Get Info" (command-i) and be sure you have "read & write" in the Sharing & Permissions section. Check under "General" section to be sure it isn't locked. If that is correct, launch Applications/Utilities/Terminal and at the prompt copy & paste this command…
mkdir ~/.Trash
If you get a message that the folder already exists, copy & paste these commands... sudo chown $UID ~/ .Trash Press return. Enter your admin password (it will be invisible) Press return.Then enter
chmod u+rwx ~/.Trash
Press return. Log out and back in, or restart.
Open Finder, press Option key, select Go > Library, open Preferences and delete com.apple.finder.plist. Finally, open > Force Quit and quit Finder
Didn't work, mende1. 😟
Thanks Viking...I know all that. This happened out of the blue and I have no idea why. I don't want a workaround, I want a fix and an explanation as to why it happened.
Thanks macjack but that didn't work for me either.
If you're getting the authentication request when MOVING stuff from the root-level /Applications folder or hitting CMD+DELETE after selecting something within, then that's mommy Apple protecting you from yourself. You can solve that by running this Terminal command:
sudo chown -R root:admin /Applications
hit the return key, at the Password: prompt, carefully type in your admin password, since nothing displays on the screen, hit the return key, and restart.
Thank you, baltwo! Worked perfectly! No idea why mommy Apple decided out of the blue I need protection but at least it's fixed!
Apparently, the same reason they went and hid each user's Library folder with Lion and ML.
Why is Mountain Lion asking for my password to delete files?
