Permissions for backing up Library folder

Thanks for your reply, Barney-15E.

I understand the principle of not changing Library permissions, but I don't see what possible harm could come from Read-only access or allowing the Admin to change the permissions to Read-only.

I will dig deeper into the backup software and see if I can solve the problem from that end.

Thanks, Barney-15E. Just saw this this AM; sorry for the delay.

Trying to copy the Users/user/Library folder. The Permissions do allow read only. I have a query posted to the NAS users forum, asking for help from that end, but no response so far.

This stuff shouldn't be this complicated! It's a simple project on which I have literally spent weeks, fighting little things like this.

Thanks, Barney-15E.

The backup is from a NAS unit, NetGear ReadyNAS. The job pulls the files from the computer to the NAS; the files are not being pushed to the NAS by an application on the computer. So, there's not a Mac User running the backup software. I am an Admin on the NAS, but I'm not sure who the Mac sees as the user.

I have tried other backup solutions, e.g., Acronis, SuperDuper!, and Carbon Copy Cloner, plus, of course, Time Machine.

TM would be perfect if I could depend on it to not randomly throw up its hands and start over with no warning.

Acronis and SuperDuper! don't yield backup folders that I can directly access and manipulate with Finder, or, at least, I couldn't figure out a way to do that.

I like the output, functionality, of Carbon Copy Cloner, but it doesn't seem to like the NAS unit; it fails frequently, and when it gets to End of Job, it almost always is with errors and/or warnings; I was spending all my time chasing those down.

The NAS routine fails with Permission-denied errors. I've been able to get around some of these by setting R&W permissions for Everyone, but I'm not comfortable doing that, plus, even that doesn't always work -- I guess because Everyone is really not the user the Mac sees.

Thanks for your interest.

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Hey, Barney. Thanks for your message.

Some "user" process is given access to the files. It isn't magically "getting" the files. Whatever it is has to connect as some "user."

Good point, one I had not considered. How can I figure out who that user is?

That's probably because you are using the unsupported NAS AFP protocol. Unless it is relatively new (or they pushed out an update), it is using an AFP hack to support Time Machine. They used a hack because Apple has never licensed AFP. Time Machine over the AFP hack has never been supported.

I don't Time-Machine to the NAS. My bad feelings about TM came from using external HDDs attached directly to the computers, and waking up to messages saying something like, 'your TM backups are unusable, and have been erased', without a by-your-leave, or any opportunity to try to fix the problem, or to try to save what was good. This didn't happen often, but it only takes once to lose many years of backup; I just don't trust TM with important things like financial docs, photographs, etc.

For 2 desktops, I TM to directly attached external drives, but am trying to use the NAS for a belt-and-suspenders second copy. I've a third copy with a cloud backup service, CrashPlan.

Only the paranoid survive

-Andy Grove, 1996

For a couple of laptops, which don't reliably always have external drives attached, I don't even try to TM.

Having said all this, I really like the concept/idea of TM. It would be a perfect solution if you could rely on it to keep on truckin'.

Stay safe.

Hey, Barney-15E.

I like your idea of hosting TM drives on your Mini for the laptops. I can do that. You are using one external drive on the Mini to host TMs for more than one laptop?

I don't remember the circumstances if the time last a TM bailed out on me. Could well have been an early APFS issue. Based on your confidence, I am going to rely on TM more.

Your earlier post prompted me to take a closer look at question of who the NAS is telling the Mac it is. The NAS is 'logging on' with my credentials, but I have no idea what application it is using to pull the files from the Mac. I think I'll try poking around in the Activity Monitor to see what I see.

Barney, you are a huge help. Simply engaging in the back-and-forth has helped sharpen my thinking and point me in helpful directions. Your specific suggestions and observations are an added bonus. Thank you so much.

OK. I can do that! Thanks