MacOS – Why rebooted Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion prevents adding or moving files at Desktop

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Whenever I reboot my Macbook Pro since installing OSX 10.8 the desktop is locked, prohibiting files from being dropped on or moved from the desktop. I can right-click, select “Get Info” and uncheck the “locked” box, but it will return the locked status the next time the machine sleeps or reboots.

How can I keep the desktop unlocked?

Best Answer

The OS X Recovery Mode has a utility called resetpassword which, apart from the obvious, will also reset the permissions for your home holder.

  1. Restart your Mac and hold down cmd ⌘-R, and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears.

  2. Once started up, from the menu bar at the top, go Utilities > Terminal

  3. Type in resetpassword and hit enter, and the Reset Password utility will open.

Reset Password utility

  1. Select the user, change the password, and hit 'Save' to save the password, and then below that hit 'Reset' to fix the permissions
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