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jandscanada Author

Level 1

10 points

Sharing permissions on WD Drive used for backup always shows "You can only read"

The WD Passport drive I use for Time Machine backups only shows "read only" in the permissions. I have reformatted the drive (APFS) but still get the same message. I can access the drive and see the backup information and can restore files from it. I'm just curious as to why it would only show read only. Also there is no option to change those permissions and it doesn't show a list of users that you normally see under the Sharing & Permissions.

Out of curiosity I plugged the drive into an older MacBook Air and the permissions do show up however when I look into the drive I cannot see any of the files. I suspect that is because it was created with Time Machine on the iMac.

This is what shows for the info on the iMac

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Nov 2, 2022 5:38 AM

Top-ranking reply

dialabrain

Level 10

126,761 points

Posted on Nov 2, 2022 6:04 AM

FWIW, what you see is normal for a Time Machine drive running Monterey. There's no way to write to it.

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Sharing permissions on WD Drive used for backup always shows "You can only read"

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