Question :

I used to be able to drag&drop tweaked or additional system files to the general Libraries folder inside System folder. I only had to typ my administrator’s name & password to give extra authentication. But, since installing OSX 10.11 El_Capitan, I can’t seem to be able to drag&drop like that any longer… I get a grey circle with a slash in it…

Even when trying to change folder permissions for folders within de System folder, through the “Get Info” panel, I can’t change the permissions…

What is the problem ?

And how can I bypass this ?

Answer :

The grey circle with a slash in it is actually a grey version of the red traffic sign that is used as a “No Entry”, “No Access” or “Prohibited” sign.

With the upgrade to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan, System Integrity Protection (SIP) has been introduced to OSX. The positive side of this is that it is now extremely hard to accidentally mess up the OSX system. The negative side however is that is no longer possible to get access to some system folders without downgrading security and using the Terminal.

But… the collaboration between the ~/System/Library folder and the ~/Library folder is now working far better than in previous versions of OSX.

So, the solution : if you want to put files or items in a folder that’s inside the ~/System/Library folder, now put them in the corresponding folder inside the ~/Library folder and everything should work as intended

e.g. :  items that you used to put in the ~/System/Library/Fonts folder, can now be drag&dropped into the ~/Library/Fonts folder

NOTE : for items that you used to put in a folder within ~/System/Library that isn’t available inside ~/Library the solution is to create a folder with the correct name in there to put those items in

e.g. : for items that you used to put in the ~/System/Library/Filters folder, you should now create a ~/Library/Filters folder first to put the files in first

TIP : to be able to view the ~/Users/[username]/Library folder, make sure “Finder” is indicated next to the Apple icon in the upper left corner, the select “Go” and press the ALT-key on your keyboard and the Library folder will magically appear in the pulldown list

enjoy !