Tom Brownold
Level 1 (19 points)
Desktops

Q: Unwanted Name and Privilege changes

I am using OS X 11.5 in a MAC PRO early 2008 with multiple internal hard drives. I recently tried to put a file from my desktop into my startup hard dive folder and was not allowed to do so until I had provided my admin. password.  I had never run into that before. I went to "get info"  for that hard drive and noticed that where once it said "admin"  "Read Write" it said, "wheel" "read only".  Okay, I changed the privileges to where I could do what I wanted to do. I am the only one using this computer. I would like to know if anyone else has experienced the unusual behavior and what course of action I should take to prevent this inconvenience from happening again? Thanks.

Mac Pro early 2008, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Jul 24, 2016 8:34 PM

by appreciate,Solvedanswer
appreciate appreciate
Level 4 (1,276 points)
Mac OS X
A:

An apple article is there : OS X Yosemite: Set permissions for items on your Mac

Posted on Jul 24, 2016 8:49 PM

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Tom Brownold

Q: Unwanted Name and Privilege changes

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  • by Linc Davis,Helpful

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 24, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Tom Brownold
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 24, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Tom Brownold

    The behavior isn't unusual; it's normal. The permissions are set that way for your protection and you shouldn't change them, nor should you change anything at all at the top level of the startup volume. Your personal files belong in your home folder, which is represented by a house icon with your name in the sidebar of a Finder window.

  • by FishingAddict,Helpful

    FishingAddict FishingAddict Jul 24, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Tom Brownold
    Level 4 (1,549 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 24, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Tom Brownold

    The default (correct) permissions for your startup (OS) hard drive when viewed from aFinder get into window are indeed:

     

    system | Read & Write

    wheel | Read only

    everyone | Read only

     

    Even if you are able to, you should never change the permissions of the root of your hard drive or any of the directories related to Mac OS or you will almost certainly have system problems in the future.  Do some research on System Integrity Protection for more details about the directories that are critical to your Mac and why they are protected.

     

    About System Integrity Protection on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by appreciate,Solvedanswer

    appreciate Jul 24, 2016 8:49 PM in response to Tom Brownold
    Level 4 (1,276 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 24, 2016 8:49 PM in response to Tom Brownold

    An apple article is there : OS X Yosemite: Set permissions for items on your Mac

  • by Tom Brownold,

    Tom Brownold Tom Brownold Jul 24, 2016 9:34 PM in response to FishingAddict
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 24, 2016 9:34 PM in response to FishingAddict

    Wow, thank you for the fast reply. So what happens if I were to delete "wheel"?

  • by Tom Brownold,

    Tom Brownold Tom Brownold Jul 24, 2016 9:49 PM in response to appreciate
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 24, 2016 9:49 PM in response to appreciate

    Useful information. I still do not understand why this is the first time I have seen "wheel". What is it's significance?

  • by FishingAddict,

    FishingAddict FishingAddict Jul 25, 2016 10:41 PM in response to Tom Brownold
    Level 4 (1,549 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 25, 2016 10:41 PM in response to Tom Brownold

    The wheel group comes from the history of UNIX operating systems.  A good discussion exists here:

    https://superuser.com/questions/191955/what-is-the-wheel-user-in-os-x

     

    As Linc states above, you should never alter the permissions of the startup volume or actually any directory outside of your own home folder.  If you insist on self inflicting almost certain future doom to your Mac OS system then at least leave the default permissions in place, and instead add additional permissions to grant yourself permissions.  Doing so uses an additional layer of permissions called ACLs.  For additional information you should do some additional research including referring to man chmod in terminal.

     

    Lets just say that Apple has some incredibly knowledgable engineers that have set permissions as they need to be set on your system and to ignore that will put your Mac's health in peril unless your are very knowledgable of what your are doing and why you are doing it.

  • by Tom Brownold,

    Tom Brownold Tom Brownold Jul 26, 2016 9:58 AM in response to FishingAddict
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 26, 2016 9:58 AM in response to FishingAddict

    Thank you for the linked article. Very informative.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jul 26, 2016 10:14 AM in response to Tom Brownold
    Level 9 (60,931 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 26, 2016 10:14 AM in response to Tom Brownold

    MacOS is inherently a Multi-User system, even if you choose to only have one User. You do not have write access to the top-level of the drive, because it belongs to the System. Your files (including your desktop, which is a separate folder under your User) are kept at:

    /Users/<your user short name>

     

    You could, if you would find it convenient, create an additional folder at top level and give it (and only it) Broader permissions. You could also place an Alias to your Desktop folder there. Then it could be used for quickly storing random stuff when you need to. But "the right way to do it" is to navigate to your User folder and place your files there, (not at top-level).