Padlock on thumbnail. What does it mean?

[iHateMacs]

RE: Snow Leopard.

What does the padlock on the lower left of a file's thumbnail really mean when viewing the contents of a folder?

I assumed it meant the file was locked, but some files I lock do not show the padlock.

I have a folder of jpg files. All are owned by me and when I click the "Locked" check box in the Get Info dialogue box only a couple of files will show a padlock.

Is this just a bug or is there more to it than meets the eye?

 

[Makosuke]

Your assumption is correct; that just means the file is locked. Probably the behavior you're seeing is because files with a thumbnail preview icon do not show the padlock. Which sounds like a bug to me (or more likely a design oversight), but maybe there's a logical reason for it.

If you want your padlocks more than you want your live icons (or if you just prefer to have the Finder do less disk access in the background) you can of course turn off the preview icons in the prefs.