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Level 1

15 points

Admin permissions, custom access, irregular Everyone account

I updated from Tiger.
I did repair permissions from disk utility because of another problem (activity monitor crashes, repairing permissions took ages, but to no avail).

Problem:
I cannot delete any file anymore without entering my admin password.

I'm logged in as admin.
The folders have usual privileges, but the files inside all folders have corrupted privileges.

Get info is telling me (as admin) that I would have custom access.

Sharing & Permissions
You have custom access
Name: Privilege
everyone: custom
myadminname (Me): read & write
everyone: read only

You can see two everyone accounts, the first one having custom privileges.

What I've tried
Reboot
unplugging all cables
reboot
Tried repair permissions again, took ages again
Found another thread where the GroupID was switched to "20". This did not help in this case.

Went to the Home folder:
Get info:
Sharing & Permissions
You have custom access
Name Privilege
myadminname (Me): read & write
everyone: read only

As you can see, this folder still has custom access, and there is no additional everyone with custom access.
Tried: apply to enclosed items.
This took ages. Did not fix the problem. Still the same on all files: you have custom access.

I hope someone can tell me what flying-blind-console-unix-magick I have to enter to fix this. Oh, better tell me how to find the console. Or how to type. Since I've upgraded to Leopard, I feel like 25 years younger: a complete idiot sitting in front of an nonresponding computer.

The problem is, I really need my computer for production. Meaning that I am loosing money with every hour I am sitting in front of this nonresponding computer. Please help.

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 2, 2007 3:48 PM

42 replies

Dec 3, 2007 6:30 AM in response to Dave Marcoot

I'm not sure if this is a permanent fix, or something temporary, but I used Tinkertool System to delete the custom ACL from my Applications folder and then used the permissions setter in GET INFO (CMD-I) to filter those down through that folder. You can find it in the little star menu at the bottom. You cant use the permissions repair in the Disk Utility because it does not seem to remove the custom settings.

Now when I choose get info it once again says I have READ and WRITE Permissions, where it once said I had custom permissions, and all the applications I checked in that folder seem to have adopted those permissions as well.

Tinkertool System costs about $12. I do not know if there are any other programs that allow you to add and delete ACL settings. I am sure there must be.

Message was edited by: Paul Charlesworth

Dec 3, 2007 8:47 AM in response to Merged Content 1

Forgot to add that I did this with several other folders, and then ran the Disk Utility to correct permissions and check for more ACL files. So far, so good!

macxprt

Level 1

4 points

Dec 17, 2007 3:06 PM in response to djhartman

Excellent! I have been searching high and low for an answer to this problem. Tried the chmod command and it worked great (so far, cross my fingers!)

Spoke with a level 2 Apple Tech yesterday who sent me a data capture app so he can send the console and memory dump to the engineers. Hopefully they fix this in 10.5.2

I will send a copy of this thread to the Apple Tech that is on my case.

Dec 29, 2007 3:48 PM in response to Andreas J. Muhr

That worked for me, thanks. I had tried several other "fixes" that didn't work

Jan 9, 2008 2:14 PM in response to djhartman

Just wanted to add my thanks to djhartman. I had exactly the same problem on my Sites folder. Once I removed all ACLs using the -R -N command it all worked fine.

Jan 9, 2008 8:27 PM in response to Victor In Munich

I have the same problem as Victor, but worse. ALL my home directories have @. For example,

drwxrwxr-x@ 37 bud G4 admin 1258 Jan 7 07:56 Documents
and
drwxrwxr-x@ 37 bud G4 admin 1258 Jan 7 07:56 Documents
com.apple.FinderInfo

Like Victor, I can't locate any files named FinderInfo. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? In addition to the @, should I be worried that Admins have R/W/E and that World has R/-/E ? I actually prefer Admins to have R/W/E in addition to myself, the owner.

I should mention that when I started, root was owner of all these files, which explained many of my permission problems. I changed root to myself and propagated this via GetInfo before checking with ls -le.

darkbodhi

Level 2

405 points

Jan 21, 2008 10:02 AM in response to djhartman

djhartman--

Thanks so much for this. I've been tearing my hair out for four days trying to figure out why I suddenly wasn't allowed to do anything on my computer. I tried repairing permissions, repairing disk, running DiskWarrior, and even doing an Archive and Install of 10.5, but all to no avail. Close to despair, and ready to do a clean Erase and Install (which I dreaded to the point of near tears), I stumbled upon this thread and gave your suggestion a try. BAM!! Suddenly everything is working like clockwork again! Thank you so much. I do have a question for anyone out there in the know--why did this happen? I was operating my computer per usual (no installs, no uninstalls, no goofy tinkering--just working with iPhoto, surfing the net, and checking e-mail. Really basic stuff). I've never had this happen to me in all my ten years of Mac ownership.

Anyway, thanks again!

Feb 5, 2008 6:38 PM in response to acupoftea

Thanks a mil! I was working on a new intel iMac that had recently been migrated from an old cube, and couldn't move or trash files without the administrative password. I noticed that the Get Info did show 2 "everyone: groups with the top one with "Custom" privileges. After changing the user to the Staff group in Terminal,

sudo chmod -R -N ~

Worked for me as well!!

Mar 8, 2008 1:10 PM in response to acupoftea

I'm having problems with spotlight comments not being indexed on some files.

The tip from djhartman fixed this:-

To remove ALL ACLs from your homedir, use:

chmod -R -N ~

Thanks a lot. The missing files soon after running the command appeared in the smart folder. I migrated from Tiger to Leopard and I have had various issues which I've only recently discovered is due to changes in how Mac OS X now handles access. Hopefully this command has done the job.

oldal

Level 1

0 points

May 13, 2008 2:07 PM in response to acupoftea

I have been having the problem since upgrading to Leopard.

The issue seems to be folders created in Tiger.

1. I created a Disk Image of the Work Disk that I use for FileMaker Development.
2. I erased the disk with Disk Utility.
3. Mounted the Disk Image from Step 1
4. Created New Folders for each folder on the Disk Image, including folders within a folder.
5. Copied the contents of each folder from the Disk Image to the volume with new folders - No more "You Have Custom Access" permission folders/files.

There must be some difference with the folder ACL for a folder created in Tiger and the folder ACL created in Leopard.

Senoufo

Level 1

0 points

Jun 16, 2008 4:14 AM in response to Dave Marcoot

Interessting

you say to execute chmod -R -N for which folder? user folder or the volume taht contains users folder??

Thanks
Senoufo

heyp

Level 1

0 points

Jun 26, 2008 7:31 AM in response to djhartman

I've tried the commands djhartman suggested and it did clear up the "custom access" issue, however I still can't add music to my ipod because it says I don't have sufficient privileges to write to the music folder, yet I'm the only user of the computer and the admin. My music folder says I can read and write. I've repaired permissions.

When I used chmod -R -N ~ it gave me the message "chmod: Failed to clear ACL on file controlsocket: Invalid argument" but my music folder went from "you have custom access" to "you can read and write."

Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

Admin permissions, custom access, irregular Everyone account