Skip to main content
Ask Different

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Required fields*

6
  • This is a little bewildering. I've watched file read/writes whilst toggling the 'ask for password' setting. The only file that I can see being modified is com.apple.screensaver. I'm guessing that a message is sent to some service when this button is toggled in the GUI as well as writing to the plist file. I'd wager that rebooting the system or logging out/in might cause the file to be reread by said service, making the desired change. Commented May 16, 2012 at 10:12
  • 1
    I was right! Logging out and then back in after changing the plist file causes the change in settings to be reflected. So, looks like you need to find which service is controlling the 'ask for password' behaviour and reset/reload it after modifying the plist. Commented May 16, 2012 at 10:17
  • Looks like Apple undermining their own plist mechanism. Commented May 16, 2012 at 10:19
  • 1
    It's the 'loginwindow' process that seems to access this file after it's been written by System Preferences. Which makes sense. Unfortunately, killing the loginwindow process will forcefully log you out. Keep digging! Commented May 16, 2012 at 11:07
  • 1
    @macaco Can you please describe the method you used for monitoring file read/writes which toggling the 'ask for password' setting? Commented May 12, 2016 at 21:07