Strange Locked Folder Problem

Question

Hello,
I have a folder on my main hard drive that contains all my digital photos (30 gigs worth). Inside this folder are dozens and dozens of folders (named by date) that contain the images. I normally do a manual backup by just picking up the main folder and dropping on my external harddrive, thus erasing the previous version of this folder.
This has stopped working because somehow, many images are now in a locked status. If I hit apple I and look at the info panel, they are locked. At least 100-200 images have suddenly become locked. It is VERY hard to find where these images are amongst the 30 gigs of photos.
Is there a command that I can use to unlock the entire folder of photos?
And does anyone have any idea how these photos got locked without me doing it?
Thanks!

Answer 1

And does anyone have any idea how these photos got locked without me doing it?
No, I don't.
Let's try this.
Launch your Script Editor (Applications>AppleScript>Script Editor) and paste the (blue) code below into it.
Then click Run.
set lockeditems to {}
set chosenfolder to choose folder with prompt "Choose the folder whose contents you'd like to unlock:"
tell application "Finder" to set folderitems to (items of (entire contents of chosenfolder) whose locked is true)
set lockeditems to chosenfolder & folderitems
tell application "Finder"
repeat with i from 1 to (count of lockeditems)
set lockeditem to item i of lockeditems
try
set locked of lockeditem to false
on error e_ number n_
display dialog e_ & return & return & n_
end try
end repeat
end tell
set s_ to "s were"
if ((count of lockeditems) = 1) then set s_ to " was"
display dialog ((count of lockeditems) as string) & " item" & s_ & " unlocked."
I hope it does the trick!
Tom