Locked Folder in File Manager - Explained

"My mods folder is locked" - what the padlock icon actually means

You opened your server's File Manager, navigated to a folder (usually Mods), and saw a small padlock icon next to its name. Upload is greyed out. New File, New Folder, Delete, Rename all refuse to do anything. The folder still exists, the game can read what is inside, but the panel will not let you write.

This is not a billing flag, an admin lock, or anti-cheat. It is the file manager telling you that the directory on disk is owned by someone other than your server's runtime user. This page explains the ownership model and walks the two paths to fix it.

The ownership rule in one sentence

Your server runs as a Linux user named u<port> (where port is your game's port number). Anything that user can write to shows a normal folder icon in the File Manager. Anything it cannot write to shows the padlock. That is the whole rule.

Each game server is sandboxed into its own user account so that one server cannot read or modify another server's files. The panel's File Manager logs in as your server's user - not as root - so it sees exactly what your game sees. When the game can write, you can upload; when the game cannot, you cannot either.

Why it sometimes goes wrong

Three common causes for a folder to end up with the wrong owner:

1. A post-install hook ran as root. Some game installations include scripts that create directories or unpack archives. If one of those steps ran as root and forgot to chown the result back to the server user, the resulting tree shows as locked.
2. You restored from a backup taken at a different mount point. Restoring a backup that contained absolute UIDs from another node can land files owned by a numeric UID that does not exist on this node.
3. A mod manager or external tool wrote into the directory. Tools that connect via SFTP using the panel credentials will write as your server user (correct). Tools that connect via some other path (root SSH, a different SFTP account) may not, and will produce locked folders the next time you look at them.

From your point of view, the cause does not matter much. The fix is the same in all three cases.

Fix 1: the one-click path

The panel's Doctor tab detects locked folders automatically. When the rule fires, you get a button labelled Fix locked folder permissions. Clicking it runs a recursive ownership repair on your server's data directory:

• chown -R u<port>:u<port>g on every file and folder under the affected path
• chmod g+rwX,o-rwx on directories so the server's group can traverse and modify them
• chmod g+rwX,o-rwx on files while preserving any existing execute bit, so compiled mod binaries (.so, server JAR launchers, native plugins) keep their executable status

The action does not move, rename, or delete any file. It only adjusts ownership and the read/write/execute bits. Refresh the File Manager after it completes and the padlock icon should clear.

Fix 2: the manual path (if you have shell access)

If you are a self-hosted operator or if the panel button is unavailable for some reason, the fix-in-shell version is:

ssh -p222 root@<your-node>.supercraft.host
chown -R u<port>:u<port>g /home/u<port>/<game>/<affected-path>
chmod -R g+rwX,o-rwx /home/u<port>/<game>/<affected-path>

Replace <port>, <your-node>, <game>, and the affected path with your own values. The X in g+rwX is a capital X - it adds execute on directories and on files that already had execute set, which keeps mod binaries working.

Customers on managed plans do not have root SSH and do not need it. Use Fix 1.

How to confirm the fix worked

1. Refresh the File Manager - the padlock icon should be gone.
2. Click Upload - the button should be active.
3. Create a tiny test file or folder inside the previously locked directory - it should succeed.
4. Start the server (or restart it if already running) - the game should boot normally; mods or saves in the affected folder should load.

If the padlock comes back after the next restart, the cause is something that re-runs as root on every boot. Open a support ticket and we will trace the script.

What the lock does not mean

• It does not mean your account is suspended. Account-level locks show on the Billing tab, not on a folder.
• It does not mean the game is broken. The game runs as u<port>; whatever rights the game has, you have in the File Manager.
• It does not mean the files are corrupted. Ownership and content are independent.
• It does not mean a mod did this maliciously. Mods cannot execute privileged operations from inside the sandbox.

Related symptoms

A few customers describe the same root cause with different words. Any of these point at an ownership problem:

• "Permission denied" when uploading a mod
• "Read-only" label on a directory in the File Manager
• Mods folder appears empty even though the game says mods are loaded
• You can navigate into a folder but cannot rename or delete it

All of the above resolve with the same fix. Click Fix locked folder permissions in the Doctor tab, refresh, you are unblocked.

Need a host that detects and repairs this automatically? See our plans. The Doctor tab catches locked folders before your players notice, and the one-click repair runs without a restart.