Folders showing lock icon

Question

Whenever I open my documents, all the folders in it are displayed with a lock icon. Therefore, I cannot delete any file or folder in it.

I tried changing the root access using sudo chmod user:directory/ but it fails. I am not able to delete or perform any file action with it.

What action should I perform to fix it?

Please take a screenshot from Permissions and post it (or upload it and put the link to it) here. To see permissions, right click on a folder or file and select Properties. — AliNajafies, Mar 03 '13 at 14:09
Hey I have same problem with ubuntu 13.10. But all folders turn locked suddenly. and I can't open any program even shutdown doesn't work. To execute commands >> no chance at all because no program open up including terminal too. ultimately i had to restart the machine. please suggest any method to get rid of this bug.. — , Apr 16 '14 at 17:26

Eric Carvalho · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-12T16:14:37.113

88

Run the following to fix your home directory permissions:

sudo chown -R $USER: $HOME

edited Mar 12 '15 at 16:14

answered Mar 03 '13 at 14:14

Eric Carvalho

54,385

This will change the permissions or directly delete the folder?? – MashukKhan Dec 15 '16 at 06:24
@MashukKhan This will restore the correct ownership of your home folder and subfolders. Nothing will be deleted. – Eric Carvalho Dec 15 '16 at 11:02
1

After running the command I had to reboot my system for changes to take effect. It worked great! – codeaviator Sep 07 '17 at 12:15
Worked like charm, I ran the command from the path, where the locked folder existed. – Shamsul Arefin Jun 27 '19 at 08:06
works, but what happened? – nanquim Sep 14 '19 at 22:12

score 35 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 20 '18 at 13:29

35

sudo chmod 777 -R /path to folder you want to delete- This would give all permissions (Read, Write, Execute) to you

The permissions (in this case 777) are as follow:

7 - Full (Read, Write & Execute)
6 - read and write
5 - read and execute
4 - read only
3 - write and execute
2 - write only
1 - execute only
0 - none

First number change Ownership of file, second affect Group of users can access, and third refers to Others user.

Owner   Group   Other
  7       7       7

after changing the permission, try and delete the folder.

edited Nov 20 '18 at 13:29

EsmaeelE

337

answered Mar 03 '13 at 20:08

Janmejay

485

4

This would also allow anyone else to access the folder, including guests. – Marco Scannadinari Mar 07 '13 at 18:32
thats why i have given you the explanation. use 757 instead of 777 then – Janmejay Mar 08 '13 at 20:26
sudo chmod u+w -R path_to_folder is a neater way of giving yourself write permission. Not that it makes much difference if you're deleting the folder anyway. – lane Sep 07 '16 at 12:58
Very simple and clean explanation – VVB Sep 22 '17 at 15:08
1

To apply all permission on current directory type and run: sudo chmod 777 -R . – EsmaeelE Nov 20 '18 at 11:48
what does the -R mean? – Roshana Pitigala Oct 03 '20 at 06:45
@RoshanaPitigala the -R tag means recursive – fatbringer Feb 23 '24 at 05:01
Error creating directory <> No such file or directory. I get such an odd error although i can literally see the folder. Any ideas why? – fatbringer Feb 23 '24 at 05:02

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 28 '19 at 06:46

You should have a look at this answer on Super User. Adding on to this answer, you can also create a bash function like this:

# bash function for changing locked status of folders, pass folder name as command line argument
unlock() {
    chflags -R nouchg $1
}

You can put this function in your .bashrc (Linux) or .bash_profile (Mac) file and run source ~/.bashrc or source ~/.bash_profile to rebuild the bash file.

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 03 '13 at 19:44

0

Open terminal and type

gksudo nautilus

Browse to the location of documents. Goto properties and set the permission for owner as well as group as read and write. Now try to delete the folder from another nautilus window (one without root privileges).

Don't forget to close that super user nautilus as soon as you don't need it any more!

edited Mar 03 '13 at 19:44

guntbert

13,134

answered Mar 03 '13 at 14:13

learner

571

3

Never suggest sudo nautilus - gksudo nautilus is the recommended command - if really needed at all. – guntbert Mar 03 '13 at 18:49

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 25 '14 at 00:59

This would happen probably because you downloaded something from the web. And you don't have the write access to the folders. If you are sure that the files are virus free, try the following command.

chmod -R +rw *

This will remove the lock icon from the nautilus.

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 19 '16 at 16:04

0

I had this problem as I had set everything to chmod 755 to get back into my system after messing with /var permissions.

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~

solved it for me, eventually. I had to delete some files I'd downloaded first.

edited Jan 19 '16 at 16:04

Eduardo Cola

5,817

answered Jan 19 '16 at 13:00

crissixpaul

138
1
8

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 12 '16 at 09:50

0

Change the file permissions of lock file via CHMOD command:

user@pc:~$ sudo chmod 754 /var/lib/lock *

Note: 754 is access permission and path to the directory of lock file present if 754 doesn't, do try 777. Once done you can delete the file.

edited Sep 12 '16 at 09:50

snoop

4,040
9
40
58

answered Sep 12 '16 at 04:38

Rahul Pyakurel

1

Folders showing lock icon

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