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Permissions: Macintosh HD - I/user am not shown

Hey, All.


Just got a Mac Studio and migrated from an old iMac. Now i'm trying to manually copy remaining files onto the Macintosh HD from an external drive, i find that i don't have permissions.


Get Info on the MacHD shows System, Wheel (?) and Everyone. But, not my name as User.


I cannot ADD my name via the + at the bottom: "The operation can't be completed because you don't have the necessary permission.


The heck?

Mac Studio

Posted on Jul 8, 2022 11:07 AM

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Posted on Jul 8, 2022 12:42 PM

You could do that in Mojave but not in newer OS versions, starting with Catalina. In Big Sur and Monterey the system volume is sealed and read only, and that is a good thing. It means the OS cannot be modified. Not being able to put files or folders at the top level is a small price to pay. If you want multiple users to access some content, put it in /Users/Shared instead. If it is just for you, put it somewhere under your home folder.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 8, 2022 12:42 PM in response to derek stanton

You could do that in Mojave but not in newer OS versions, starting with Catalina. In Big Sur and Monterey the system volume is sealed and read only, and that is a good thing. It means the OS cannot be modified. Not being able to put files or folders at the top level is a small price to pay. If you want multiple users to access some content, put it in /Users/Shared instead. If it is just for you, put it somewhere under your home folder.

Jul 8, 2022 11:55 AM in response to Barney-15E

Hi, Barney. Thanks for the reply.

I think i'm either missing something obvious or not understanding.

On my old iMac running Mojave, i can go to my Macintosh HD/internal SSD/boot drive. I can add a folder, copy something onto it—whatever. It will tell me i need to enter my password to do this, but i can do it. When i select that drive from my finder sidebar and do Get Info, in sharing & permissions, i see System, Wheel, and Everyone. System has Read & Write, the others have Read Only.


When i do the same on my new Mac Studio, i see the same in Get Info. But, i cannot do anything on that drive.


In 30 years of Mac use, i don't think i've ever used a HOME folder! There are things in there, but i think they've been added by various processes and apps. I don't ever manually put things there. I guess i'll start now. But, i'm wondering if this permissions thing is new to OSs later than the Mojave i've been using? Or if there's something wrong with how i migrated and set up this new machine.

Permissions: Macintosh HD - I/user am not shown

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