I just had a unique issue pop-up regarding locked folders. A folder inside my applications folder was suddenly locked for some inexplicable reason. I only discovered this when SuperDuper was trying to back it up to a sparseimage and failed with an error at that folder.
So I did what most people do when they have any of a plethora of OS X problems that aren’t covered by the usual troubleshooting tricks--go to Google. This led me to Apple’s Support site, where I found this article and attempted these steps below:
If the item you are trying to unlock is a folder,use these steps:
1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
2. Type this, followed by a space: sudo chflags nouchg
3. Drag the folder you would like to unlock into the Terminal window.
4. Press Return.
5. Enter your password and press Return.
If you have attempted to unlock a file in the Finder but it is still locked, follow these steps to remove the system immutable bit from affected files, which can cause this issue.
Mac OS X 10.4 or later
1. Start in single-user mode
2. Type this, followed by Return: mount -uw /
3. Type this, followed by Return:
/usr/libexec/register_mach_bootstrap_servers /etc/mach_init.d
4. Type this, followed by Return: autodiskmount
5. Type this, followed by Return:
find / -flags schg -exec chflags noschg {} \;
6. Once this is finished, type this followed by Return: reboot
Of course, the first set of instructions designed for a folder didn’t do the trick. But I booted single-user and typed in the long commands for fixing files, and this did do the trick!
