Why no system preference lock on Time Machine option?

I have two Macs. One MacBook and one iMac. Both run recent and same version of OS X. Why do I not see the lock in the Time Machine option in system preferences on the iMac. The lock is present on the MacBook. How can I get the lock to appear?

In the Security & Privacy preference pane, unlock the settings, then click the Advanced button and check the box marked
         Require administrator password for access to locked settings

Similar Messages

  • How to Check System Preference Settings with Time Machine

    I just found and fixed a problem caused by a bad System Preference/Universal Access
    setting and would like to go back in my Time Machine backup to see where the
    error was made. I may have been too quick to blame the 10.5.3 update on the
    problem so wanted to look back in time.
    The problem is i don't know how to check System Preferences using the Time Machine.
    Any suggestion?

    If you're looking for specific settings, the short answer is you cannot. You can open the .plist files and try to find the specific option you're looking for, though it might not be too easy to decipher some of the contents of the .plist file. For the most part they're just lists of attributes and settings. For instance, here's a very small chunk of my Finder .plist file:
    <key>All Images.cannedSearch</key>
    <dict>
         <key>SidebarWidth</key>
         <integer>162</integer>
         <key>ToolbarVisible</key>
         <true/>
         <key>ViewHeight</key>
         <integer>1116</integer>
         <key>ViewStyle</key>
         <string>icnv</string>
         <key>WindowBounds</key>
         <dict>
              <key>bottom</key>
              <integer>1200</integer>
              <key>left</key>
              <integer>56</integer>
              <key>right</key>
              <integer>1920</integer>
              <key>top</key>
              <integer>84</integer>
         </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>AnimateInfoPanes</key>
    <true/>
    <key>AnimateSnapToGrid</key>
    <string>true</string>
    <key>AnimateWindowZoom</key>
    <true/>
    Each "key" is followed by an attribute, so for instance the "SideBar Width" key is given the "Width" integer attribute of 162. However, some keys have multiple entries, such as the "WindowBounds" key having sub-keys of "bottom", "left", "right", and "top".
    These values are finder preferences, though are not accessible via the finder's preference settings. However, buried deep in the Finder's .plist file are some of the user-editable settings:
    <key>ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ShowMountedServersOnDesktop</key>
    <true/>
    <key>SidebarSearchesSectionDisclosedState</key>
    <false/>
    If you can find the attribute you're looking for, then that may help you narrow down which version of a .plist file to restore, though not all of them are straightforward legible text. Some have bizarre strings of seemingly random characters that only the application can interpret.
    Message was edited by: Topher Kessler

  • Why does system preferences crash every time i try to change the wallpaper?

    Why does system preferences crash every time i try to change the wallpaper? Any way to fix or reset the app?

    We're sorry to hear that Firefox is crashing. In order to assist you better, please follow the steps below to provide us crash ID's to help us learn more about your crash.
    #Enter about:crashes in the address bar (that's where you enter your website URL) and press Enter. You should now see a list of submitted crash reports.
    #Copy the 5 most recent crash ID's that you see in the crash report window and paste them into your response here.
    Thank you for your cooperation!
    More information and further troubleshooting steps can be found in the [[Firefox crashes]] article.

  • Why does my preference pane for Time Machine on my Mac unlock every time I open it?

    Hi,
    My MacBook Pro is a 2012 model, running on Mac OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion.
    It is running on an OCZ Agility 4 SSD (which runs the TRIM command using the 'TRIM enabler' hack.) and has 16GB of RAM, powered by a 2.5Ghz dual core Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5.
    I back up my Mac using Time Machine to a 500GB WD "My Passport" drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), with a GUID partition map.
    Every time I lock the preference pane for Time Machine in the System Preferences, the next time I open it, it is unlocked.
    Is this a bug with OS X Mountain Lion, or could it be a hardware problem?
    Does this happen to anyone else?
    Thanks.

    From the menu bar, select
     ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Security & Privacy ▹ General
    If there's a closed padlock icon in the lower left corner of the preference pane, click it and authenticate to unlock the settings. Enter your login password when prompted.
    Click the Advanced button and check the box marked
    Require an administrator password to access locked preferences
    in the sheet that drops down. Then click OK.

  • How is it possible that in preference the lock by Time Machine is unlocked the day after i locked it

    How is it possible that in preference the lock by Time Machine is unlocked the day after i locked it

    The crossdomain security policy stuff is annoying, but it's there to prevent this sort of scenario:
    Joe Blackhat writes a flash game about Bob the Goldfish. Joe Blackhat decides that a fun thing to do might be to write an SMTP client in ActionScript so that fans of Bob the Goldfish could unknowingly send spam while they play. Bob the Goldfish game goes viral. Everyone is playing it and spam volume bajillion-duples. Spam kills the internet. The End.
    This is facetious and contrived, but without crossdomain security policies, the internet would be a much more dangerous place. JavaScript has even more restrictive crossdomain policies. I don't think this is going away.

  • System Preferences Lock

    I +do not+ have the "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" preference checked, and +do not+ want to have to unlock System Preference panes each time I use them. Yet, on three of my computers, after each restart, the panes are locked (whether I left them locked or unlocked)!
    I know that a few System Preferences panes are always locked after a restart of the OS or of System Preferences, I'm not talking about those. But I believe the other panes with locks are supposed to retain their locked/unlocked status through quitting and opening System Preferences, and through OS restarts, at least for administrator users. (I also know that the lock status is global, that unlocking one unlocks them all.)
    I am an administrator, and always login to these computers as such. All my computers are running Snow Leopard (10.6.5). I have four computers, three exhibit this behavior, one does not (the one that does not works as expected, leaving panes unlocked after a restart, according to the Security: General preference setting).
    I have upgraded two of the problem computers from Leopard, the third problem computer was purchased with Snow Leopard, but I migrated its files from a previous Leopard installation. On the latter, I clean-installed a fresh OS on a second drive, and the problem +does not+ exist for that OS installation. I also created a temporary user account, on the problem OS, and the problem persisted for that temporary account (so we know it's not a user-level issue, right?).
    The one computer that works as expected was purchased with Snow Leopard, but its files were also migrated from a previous Leopard installation. So no clue there.
    And lastly, the three "problem" computers seem to retain the lock/unlock status through restarts of the System Preferences app, just not OS restarts. By that I mean: I'll startup the computer, and all the panes are locked. I'll unlock them and quit System Preferences. On re-opening System Preferences, the panes are still unlocked (except the panes that are always locked, like Security). The unlocked panes remain unlocked through any number of System Preferences quits and launches. But after the computer is shut down or restarted, all the panes revert to locked. If I turn on "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane", then all panes are re-locked after restarts of both the OS and System Preferences, as expected. So in other words, the "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" setting works as expected +in between+ OS restarts, just not right after an OS restart.
    I suspect there is some sort of remanent that was migrated from the previous OS installation that is causing this misbehavior, but repairing permissions has not solved the problem. Nor has replacing System Preferences preference files (the ones I can find, anyway). This security setting must be buried deep, as I expect it would be, and I cannot find the stubborn file where it is stored that seems to defy and ignore the "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" setting, at least after a restart.
    So, my questions:
    Does anyone know exactly what the intended behavior of these locks actually is? Through restarts of the OS? Through restarts of System Preferences? For administrators? For non-administrators? Is there any Apple documentation that explains this clearly, and in detail?
    If the intended behavior is for the unlocked locks to stay unlocked through an OS restart for administrators (which is how I believe it's supposed to work), how can I restore this behavior on the machines that don't adhere to that?
    And why the mystery: that the behavior works as expected once the lock is first unlocked, throughout that session, but not if the computer has been restarted?!? Is this a cache issue? (If so, it's survived numerous Cocktail cache cleanings.)
    Help!

    OK:
    1) I checked "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane".
    2) I restarted the computer.
    All System Preferences panes were locked, as expected.
    "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" was still checked.
    3) I unchecked "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane".
    4) I restarted the computer.
    All System Preferences panes were still locked.
    "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" was still unchecked.
    5) I unlocked the Energy Saver preference pane.
    6) I restarted the computer.
    All System Preferences panes were re-locked.
    "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" was still unchecked.
    Each time I logged in as an administrator.
    I've repeated this exercise many times, on different computers with the same results. (Except for one of my computers, which stays unlocked, as it's set to do.)
    FYI: It's the Energy Saver pane that I need to keep unlocked. And that's for a stupid work-around I have to do to reset its "Wake for network access" pref constantly. Here's why:
    I'm using a somewhat complicated workaround to defeat Snow Leopard's new Wake On Demand feature, which I don't want. I need to be able to wake my computers with a magic packet, which doesn't work with "Wake for network access" off. I don't want my computers to wake every few hours to register with my Time Capsule's proxy server (which is part of the Wake On Demand "feature"). I just want to use the magic packet as I was able to do with Leopard. So I have to turn on "Wake for network access" just before the computer sleeps, but right after it would have registered with Time Capsule's sleep proxy server. I use some SleepWatcher scripts to accomplish this feat. The computer then wakes for the packet, but Time Capsule doesn't broadcast the computer as available. But my SleepWatcher scripts don't work if the **** Energy Saver preference pane is locked, because my SleepWatcher scripts can't manipulate the "Wake for network access" setting when it is.
    So if you know a better solution for this "Wake On Demand" problem than what I'm doing, I wouldn't care so much about the locked Sys Pref's. Like:
    1) How to defeat the entire sleep proxy server in Time Capsule, or
    2) How to keep the computer from registering itself with Time Capsule's sleep proxy server without jumping though the hoops I am now, or
    3) How to programmatically manipulate the "Wake for network access" Energy Saver pref while its lock is enabled, or
    4) How to write a terminal command that circumvents manual administrator authentication.
    By #4 that I mean: the SleepWatcher scripts fail when the Energy Saver pref pane is locked because the system asks me to authenticate (a dialog pops up when the scripts execute). The scripts work fine when the Sys Prefs locks are unlocked. If I could write a script that includes the authentication (like some sort of SUDO trick that doesn't require manual input of a password), then that, too, would solve my issues. Although, that would mean writing my admin password into the script, I guess, which is not the greatest, security-wise. That's why I'm attempting to fix this Sys Prefs lock issue first. (Plus it's annoying to have to constantly unlock a lock I am constantly unlocking!!)
    All this because Apple decided to change the Wake On LAN feature I've enjoyed using for a decade, without giving us some way to have Wake On LAN on with Wake On Demand off!! Errrrr...

  • System Preference lock always reverts to Unlocked

    For some reason, when I shut down/restart, the Time Machine System Preference lock always reverts back to the unlocked position.
    I periodically go and check it and it's always the same thing.

    I, too, am having such issues.
    Running Leopard, MBP 2.33.
    Since updating to Leopard, I cannot seem to lock my padlock... EVER!
    e.g., I "get info" for some folder, and unlock the small padlock at the bottom right to modify the preferences. After entering admin password and unlocking the lock, I cannot "re-lock" the padlock.
    Moreover, my System Preferences folder is ALWAYS UNLOCKED! I cannot change it.
    In fact, if I switch to a "standard" user account, they are still unlocked!
    Funny enought, I happen to be listening to music at the same time, and it continued to play while in the standard account.
    Seriously wacky stuff going on with permissions.
    Any help? Anyone?

  • Why does system preferences crash when changing screen saver?

    There are several posts in this same vein, here, but I can't seem to find a specific one.
    I had a process that ran and accidently began removing portions of my "user" directory.  I used time machine to restore and everything seems fine now.
    However, I noticed that after awhile, the screen saver would come up rather than just blanking the screen.  I decided this would be ok, so I when to System Preferences-> Desktop and Screen Saver then clicked the Screen Saver tab. I chose one of the screen savers, but didn't like it. But upon re-entering the System Preferences a second time, low and behold, there were NO screen savers listed and the process hung and wouldn't close.  I finally had to stop the process from the Activity Monitor, at which point it gave a dump. This has happened about 10 times.
    When I go to /System/Library/Screen\ Savers/  there is no content there. Same goes for ~/Lirbrary/Screen\ Savers/.  So it looks as if they are gone. I have a Mac Book Pro, however, that behaves the same way (except its running Snow Leopard instead of Lion). So I don't know that's it.
    I have run permissions repair and checked the disk and all is well.
    I have set System Preferences to not run in 32 bit, as someone suggested, but that didn't do anything either.
    I have a 2009 iMac with 4GB and about 3/4th full disk.
    Could anyone suggest any more alternatives?

    Thanks Linc.  I am not really comfortable with the re-install approach I guess, but it may be all I have left.  I tried to go back to a previous backup on Time Machine and just replace systempreferences.app but the backup wouldn't let me do that.  I have restored library in my home directory but I did so only piecemeal based on things that seemingly got disturbed.
    One very odd thing... I left my computer on this morning and came back a little later and lo and behold a screen saver was running. This was a bit of a surprise, seeing that when I go to the system preferences and try to see screen savers, they aren't there and that's when the app hangs. So, apparently the screen savers are SOMEWHERE, but not able to be seen.  That's what is killing me. I feel as if its a permission problem, yet when I run a repair-permissions, it finds nothing wrong. The screen saver files are supposed to be somewhere, but I have a feeling they are hidden somehow, and because of that, I can't change anything. The result baffling part is that even in terminal mode, viewing /System/Library/Screen\ Savers/ or the home library folder, shows absolutely nothing in Finder OR terminal mode. So they are either completely gone or hiding. I have to assume the latter, seeing that a screen saver started up.
    So if anyone has an idea how these files could be hiding, or where, other than the locations above, that would be a very good thing to know.

  • Can't unlock the lock on Time Machine

    I Can't unlock the lock on Time Machine, Security, Accounts, or Startup Disk prefPanes?
    This occured after the last update to OS 10.6.8. Repaired the disk Permitions.The problem remains.......
    Does anyone know how to solve the problem?
    I

    I Can't unlock the lock on Time Machine, Security, Accounts, or Startup Disk prefPanes?
    This occured after the last update to OS 10.6.8. Repaired the disk Permitions.The problem remains.......
    Does anyone know how to solve the problem?
    I

  • Does anybody know why in system preferences Quicktime is not displayed

    Does anyone know why in Systems Preferences Quicktime is not displayed? thanks

    There is no QuickTime System Preference pane in Snoow Leopard or Lion.

  • HT201250 Why can't I re-open Time Machine?

    Why can't I re-open Time Machine? Created first (ever) back-up, but with reopening get error code -6584, an unexpected error, but what error? In syspref everything seems to be pointing OK to my Apple Time Capsule, hmmmmm...????

    See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

  • Locked into Time machine

    Has anyone else been locked into Time machine? I've just had to reboot due to being locked into Time machine, which by the way seemed unreasonably empty.
    I went into to look for a file from several months ago and could only find files for the last month or so, Time machine clearly registered that its database stretched back a couple of years but each entry was empty. When I tried to exit Time machine I couldn't. In the end I had to use the power button to force a restart.
    Is it just me or is OSX getting more and more flakey with each release. 10.3 was solid but since then (the switch to Intel?) the OS has been tripping up more and more.

    Hello, not sure how this might affect a TM drive, or not, but...
    Here is what i needed to do for my drive "320GB HD", the last command is just for clean up
    Open Terminal and type these commands carefully with the spaces & change 320GB HD to the name of your drive.
    sudo chflags 0 "/volumes/320GB HD"
    sudo chown root "/volumes/320GB HD"
    sudo chmod 1775 "/volumes/320GB HD"
    sudo -k
    That said, these should be sufficient to do the job:
    sudo chflags 0 "/Volumes/320GB HD"
    sudo chmod a+rx "/Volumes/320GB HD"

  • HT3207 My Energy Saver section of system preferences does not show the option to choose between energy saver or higher performance. I'd like to maximize my performance... any idea how to do that or why the option isn't hsowing up?

    My Energy Saver section of system preferences does not show the option to choose between energy saver or higher performance. I'd like to maximize my performance... any idea how to do that or why the option isn't showing up?

    Mac video card performance

  • Time Machine options are not working. I am unable to schedule automatic backups.

    Time Machine options are not working. I am unable to schedule automatic backups.  The On-Off button is grayed out. I can perform a backup manually.

    Thanks for responding.  I have an external disk with plenty of room.  It is used only for backup of my computer.  I get a backup by clicking on the Time Machine icon at the top of the page and select "Back Up Now."  When I click on Time Machine Preferences, there is a box labeled "Options" which allows me to exclude items from backup and notify after old backups are deleted.  There is no option to schedule a backup.  The "OFF/ON" box is gray.  For "Next Backup:" it says "Automatic backups off."  I would like to turn it on.

  • HT201250 I backed up my iMac with a "WD My Passport" using the Time Machine option and tried to restore my iMac but it only saved my applications none of my documents, photos nothing else! What happened?

    I backed up my iMac with a "WD My Passport" using the Time Machine option and tried to restore my iMac but it only saved my applications none of my documents, photos nothing else! What happened?

    There should be two sparse bundles on the TC, one for each Mac.  If you click the TC in a Finder sidebar, you should see something like this (in Column View):
    If you see the sparse bundle for the iMac there, but not on the window where you do a full system restore (after starting from your Recovery HD or OSX Install disc), they may be corrupted (especially if your iMac was failing at the time of the last backup).
    Try repairing those backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    Then try the full restore again, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.  Note that if you suspect problems on the most recent backup, you might want to select an earlier one.

Maybe you are looking for