I copied a file from my Mac to my wife's Mac. I wanted to use it in an application that says it has insufficient privileges to update that file.
I looked at it on her computer and saw:
On my computer the file has the following:
howardjbrazee is an administrator on her computer.
Why doesn't she have permission to use that file?
iMac 24″, macOS 12.4
How, exactly, did you transfer it?
The way to transfer it and make the recipient the owner is to place it in the user’s Drop Box in their Public folder.
If you pull it over from the other Mac instead of pushing it over, it will also gain the ownership of the user pulling it.
“Fetching…” means the file has a user (owner) ID that doesn’t exist on that Mac. Standard macOS file permissions on a document are owner r/w, no group, and everyone no access. So, if it can’t find the owner of the file, no other user would have permission to edit the file. You’d have to add a user on that Mac to the file and take ownership of the file with that user (Get Info, Sharing pane, ellipsis button).
An administrator on macOS doesn’t have omnipotent powers. They only have the ability to elevate their privileges which is what you’ll have to do to add a user and change ownership.
I don't know how to configure the accounts the same. I believe this routine used to work before I replaced my old Mac, so I wouldn't be surprised if these howardjbrazee users are different somehow. Is there a way to make them the same?
As a test, I duplicated that file (entering her password), deleting the original (entering her password), then renamed the duplicate (entering her password). Now "Sharing & Permissions" shows her name instead of "fetching". But the application still fails.
I have a license to run the app on her computer, but that's a different issue. (and it does run on her computer after looking at the license) How do I give the app permission to access her documents? (or check to see if it has such permission)
Today, I copied the whole folder to a removable hard drive. I went to her computer and tried to replace the folder on her computer and didn't have privilege to do so. So I copied it to her desktop and then had no problem dragging it to replace her folder. Weird. And I could run the program. (I then used ChronoSync and no longer could run the program).
I copied a folder to her computer,
Exactly how did you do that, specifically the users involved.
file in it showing full read/write privilege
For which user? The one that did the copy or the one you are trying to use to edit the file.
I copied the folder to a removable drive, sneaker-neted it to my wife's computer. I copied the folder to her main drive. I looked at Sharing and Permissions of that file and of that folder on both the removable drive and on her main drive, and they look identical. I edited and saved the file on the removable drive, and I edited and tried to save that file on her main drive. It was locked.
I'm not seeing the difference. My Mac has my account, her Mac has her account. On my Mac, I copy the folder from my music folder to a removable drive. Then I carry the drive over to her Mac, and copy the folder to her music folder.
On my wife's computer, I clicked on a Word document that's in the Documents folder. It opened without asking anything.
So, is it working, now?
No, there's something weird going on. I copied a folder to her computer, and looked at a file in it showing full read/write privilege, but when I edit it, I can't write it, it's locked.
Sneaker-net. I copied the folder to a removable drive, and then to her Mac.
Still looking for which user copied the files and which user is not having access to the files.
I copied the folder to her main drive.
Where on the “main drive.”
I copied /Users/howardjbrazee/Music/kJams from my Mac to my wife's Music folder.
The difference is if your user account put the file onto her account, it would have the wrong permissions.
Which one did I do? The first way or the 2nd way?
Privilege is "fetching"
