What does it mean for runs to be “protected from editing”?
If you return to Import Data or Review Alignment after performing the peak picking on your data set, you may have noticed a lock symbol appearing next to your runs. These runs are protected from editing, which means you can’t edit the alignment, apply a mask or remove a run from the experiment without agreeing to discard the analysis first, as these are all actions that have an effect on peak picking.
“Discarding the analysis” means discarding the peak picking, experiment designs and identifications and starting the workflow again, back at Review Alignment (your vectors won’t be automatically cleared though). If you want to do this, you can click on This run is protected from editing at Review Alignment and then select Delete analysis and allow editing:
On the other hand, adding runs to an experiment — when using inclusion lists, for example — does not require you to discard your existing analysis.