Documents Suddenly Read-Only

I see others have had this concern, but there's a lot to sort through and I'm somewhat baffled...


I have folders in Dropbox (accessed via Finder - never had an issue with this) in which I save working documents. All begin as read & write (no adjustments to this setting made by me at ANY time, EVER) . After working with some, and saving new writing etc, I then sometimes reopen them (later) to find I cannot alter them. The yellow bar at the top says "read only" BUT...it still says "read & write" under Sharing & Permissions in Get Info for myself. (There is also a "staff" and an "everyone" listed, both say "read only." However, NOTHING was changed by me, and I can' t imagine that matters. I tried changing those on a document or two and it had zero effect).


I had to create a new folder in my Documents (HD) which doesn't totally work (all my related folders are in Dropbox...so I'd like to figure this out).


The error attached is what I see when trying to "Duplicate" in effort to see if I can get things working again. I have changed ZERO within settings, and I haven't fiddled around with folders, and none of this has been a problem until recently (no updates that I am aware of, but these things think on their own nowadays!)...so this is really out of the blue, and very disruptive. Again, I see others have had a similar issue - viewing Get Info hasn't told me much.


I WILL note I have multiple documents with similar names (I label them with 1, 2, 3 and so on, as they are more of the same thing. If I had just one document, it would be massive). Not sure if this would have bearing (shouldn't!) but, just in case...


Any ideas would be appreciated! Thankful for this forum!


iMac 27″, OS X 10.11

Posted on May 17, 2021 2:47 PM

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May 18, 2021 9:17 AM in response to PLMFB

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/


Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…

https://pastebin.com/

Whew, they've changed pastebin & made it harder, but after pasting in, click Create new paste button, then Embed button, then copy the URL...

<script src="https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA"></script>


The important part of the above is between the quote marks...


https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA


Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

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May 18, 2021 8:21 AM in response to BDAqua

Hello, and thank you. Forgive my ignorance, but not sure what you mean by path (or how I can find that information)?


I recently ditched Norton at the strong urging of many on this forum. I do have the Malwarebytes but I had not run anything that I am aware. It is a great question and if there is something I need to look into with that, I definitely will! Sounds like the newer MACs are generally well protected even withOUT an anti-virus program (I have the basic, free version, as was recommended by several folks, including a rep at Apple).

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May 18, 2021 12:16 PM in response to BDAqua

Hmm. I can't seem to find the path. I will definitely review these suggestions - thank you so much. I'm not much of a tech person (clearly!) but I will absolutely take a look at these. I'm so baffled as to what's occuring because I've not had issues before, and am not aware of any obvious changes. I really appreciate your time and assistance!!

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May 19, 2021 5:54 AM in response to BDAqua

So I don't see that, but I was able to see the path (I think), which is my username -> Dropbox -> (three folders...then the fourth in which the documents are saved). All those folders list my username as Read & Write. I'm a bit confused by all this (I know I'm rather out of my league with those on this forum). I will continue to snoop around. Microsoft Customer Service is not known to be of help. I'm not sure if Apple would be better, but I may need to speak with someone as I go. So odd...and CLEARLY and issue a ton of other people have experienced. I'm not a huge fan of screen shares - nothing personal on my main desktop, but still. I thank you so much for the effort and time in helping - this is a great forum!

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May 19, 2021 2:00 PM in response to BDAqua

Thankfully I have not! And it's interesting...I noticed today that not ALL the documents have decided to self-impose a "read only" limitation! Baffling. It appears those saved in my Documents folder on the HD are just fine. So at least that's good news! :)

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Documents Suddenly Read-Only

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