Singin’ the administrator-with-insufficient-privileges blues

I set up my 2018 Mac Mini to boot from an external SSD when I first got it a couple months ago. It was working fine until I recently tried to free up some space on the external SSD, when I found that I was unable to delete anything on that drive. “Insufficient privileges,” even though I’m properly identified as admin. When I go back and boot from the internal SSD, I’m able to delete from the external drive.


I’ve tried erasing the external drive and reinstalling Catalina on it from recovery mode, without success. So now I’m running off the teeny little internal SSD, and I’m afraid I’ve screwed up my Time Machine backup, because it can’t find a current backup drive.


Tearing hair out. Help?

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 27, 2020 2:28 PM

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5 replies

Jun 28, 2020 11:17 AM in response to BDAqua

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 121.0 GB disk0s2


/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +121.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 11.1 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data 47.5 GB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Preboot 81.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume Recovery 528.6 MB disk1s4

5: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s5


/dev/disk2 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk2

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS WD 2TB 2.0 TB disk2s2


/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk3

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk4 499.9 GB disk3s2


/dev/disk4 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.9 GB disk4

Physical Store disk3s2

1: APFS Volume Preboot 20.5 KB disk4s2

2: APFS Volume Recovery 20.5 KB disk4s3

3: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk4s4

4: APFS Volume T5 782.3 KB disk4s5


/dev/disk5 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk5

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1

2: Apple_HFS USB 1gb 999.9 GB disk5s2


/dev/disk6 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme +17.9 MB disk6

1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk6s1

2: Apple_HFS Flash Player 17.8 MB disk6s2


/dev/disk7 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme +50.0 MB disk7

1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk7s1

2: Apple_HFS Steam 50.0 MB disk7s2


chrissy@Chriss-Mac-mini-7 ~ %


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Singin’ the administrator-with-insufficient-privileges blues

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