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Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,573
3,872
New Zealand
Hi everyone,

If I click on the clock and go to Open Date & Time Preferences, I can't do anything until I click the lock icon and enter my password. This wasn't always the case; I think one of the updates did it. Does anyone know how to stop this from happening?

Thanks :)

PS. Does anyone else find that there is now a delay of about a second when you untick "Set date and time automatically"? In previous versions (I think it was 10.8 and earlier) it'd happen instantly.
 

!!!

macrumors 6502a
Aug 5, 2013
663
884
Hi everyone,

If I click on the clock and go to Open Date & Time Preferences, I can't do anything until I click the lock icon and enter my password. This wasn't always the case; I think one of the updates did it. Does anyone know how to stop this from happening?

Thanks :)

PS. Does anyone else find that there is now a delay of about a second when you untick "Set date and time automatically"? In previous versions (I think it was 10.8 and earlier) it'd happen instantly.
I too noticed this. It appears as Apple doesn't want you to mess with the Date & Time prefs.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,035
15,412
California
Hi everyone,

If I click on the clock and go to Open Date & Time Preferences, I can't do anything until I click the lock icon and enter my password. This wasn't always the case; I think one of the updates did it. Does anyone know how to stop this from happening?

Thanks :)

PS. Does anyone else find that there is now a delay of about a second when you untick "Set date and time automatically"? In previous versions (I think it was 10.8 and earlier) it'd happen instantly.

I just checked and mine is doing the same thing. This checkbox at the top in my screenshot previously controlled that behavior, but now with the box checked or unchecked, those system pref panels are locked for me. So looks like an update somewhere along the line broke this setting.
 

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Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,573
3,872
New Zealand
Thanks for the responses. Off to the bug reporter I go...

I didn't actually know that there was a setting for it (I'd looked but didn't find it) so thanks for that, even though it doesn't work. It's good to report an actual bug, rather than just an opinion :)
 

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,573
3,872
New Zealand
Apple has just closed my report as "behaving as intended". I've asked for clarification:

Can you please clarify why this is behaving as intended? What is the purpose of disabling "Require an administrator password to access system-wide preferences" if it still asks for a password?
 

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,573
3,872
New Zealand
Apparently it's been disabled for "security reasons". I can't fathom why looking at a calendar would be a security issue...
 

dsemf

macrumors 6502
Jul 26, 2014
432
106
Apparently it's been disabled for "security reasons". I can't fathom why looking at a calendar would be a security issue...

Time is used for a lot more than just a calendar. It has impacts on such things as cloud storage synchronization, two-factor logon security, time of day restrictions for your children.

An example of the is the Google Authenticator app. When you logon to a web site that uses this technology, you use the app to create a code that is good for 30 seconds. This code is sent the web site which compares it to its expected value. If they match you get in. If they don't, too bad. This means that your computer and the server have to have the same UTC time. This is a highly simplified example. In reality, the server may accept a range of codes depending on the security requirements.

DS
 
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Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,573
3,872
New Zealand
Looking at the calendar doesn't change the time though. I'm only trying to look! Windows has a useful pop-up calendar when you click the clock in the notification area, but OS X doesn't have anything that simple. Using Date & Time Preferences used to be easy... but Apple seems to be forgetting who owns this computer.
 

dsemf

macrumors 6502
Jul 26, 2014
432
106
Looking at the calendar doesn't change the time though. I'm only trying to look! Windows has a useful pop-up calendar when you click the clock in the notification area, but OS X doesn't have anything that simple. Using Date & Time Preferences used to be easy... but Apple seems to be forgetting who owns this computer.

Sorry, I mis-understood the issue.

DS
 

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,573
3,872
New Zealand
Fair enough; re-reading my original post, I didn't actually say what I was trying to accomplish :)
 

HenryAZ

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2010
690
143
South Congress AZ
They've expanded on this behavior in El Capitan. The Startup Disk pane in System Preferences now has a padlock, that is always locked when you go in there.
 
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