You don’t have permission to unlock the file

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You don’t have permission to unlock the file

I have a shared directory an on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 iMac and I try to open a document on an macOS Monterrey 12.6 Mac Book Pro M1. When I start editing the file, Pages complains that the file is locked (the file is not open on the iMac and I have rebooted that machine just to be sure there are no dangling file handlers). When I click on the 'Unlock' button I get the You don’t have permission to unlock the file' message. I have the same user name on both machines. I access the server through afp:// but when I do Get Info on the file from my MacBook it shows smb:// .

Anybody has a the same issue and was able to solve?

Thanx for answering!

MacBook, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 5, 2023 5:21 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,316 points

Jan 5, 2023 10:53 AM in response to reinvdo

There have been several posts noting access issues like this over SMB, but I don’t remember anyone having them on a Mac to Mac SMB connection.

All networking should be SMB, now. I don’t think you can get AFP unless you use connect to server. The Catalina/Intel Max should be able to host AFP.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,316 points

Jan 5, 2023 5:32 AM in response to reinvdo

Are you connected to the host with the same account that created the file?

file sharing is not the same thing as a file server. Well, you can share access to the files, the POSIX permissions still control Hooken make changes to the file.

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Answer 3

reinvdo Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 5, 2023 5:54 AM in response to Barney-15E

hey Barney-15E,

thanx for your swift answer.

yes, I have the same username on both the server and client machine.

But these accounts are 'Standard User' type for security reasons.

the user has Read/Write permission on the parent directory and the file itself.

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Answer 4

reinvdo Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 5, 2023 10:07 PM in response to Barney-15E

Hey Barney,

I solved the problem! This quite embarrassing and not the best moment for macOS:

I just ran: chmod 777 filename in the unix terminal!!!

now Pages does not complain anymore about the file being locked when I start editing it. I do not know why and to be honest I would even care less...

To Apple engineers: are you reading these channels? Can we fix this issue in a next release of macOS to get some basic file sharing right without the user being a nerd?

I may send an email to mr. Cook about it!!! :-D

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,316 points

Jan 6, 2023 1:13 AM in response to reinvdo

File Sharing has never been File Server. If you need a File Server, you’ll have to learn a bit about how to be a network manager. Apple dropped Server.

The two users involved are apparently not the same as you suspected.

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Answer 6

reinvdo Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 6, 2023 1:19 AM in response to Barney-15E

well, just imagine an average user that does not know the difference between file server and file sharing (I am quite puzzled also by this distinction).

Apple should hide these nitty-gritty details from end users. Without my (a bit rusty) UNIX background I would never have solved this issue.

But then Apple is mostly about lip service lately, I guess.

Time to get a Linux box!!! :-)

Thanx anyway for you feedback!!!

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,316 points

Jan 6, 2023 1:26 AM in response to reinvdo

Most users don’t need network access nor do they have multiple users accessing the same files on the network.

You’d have to configure the Linux box with the same ACLs to hame multiple user concurrent access to the network share.

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Answer 8

reinvdo Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 7, 2023 12:52 AM in response to Barney-15E

I guess you're right: how many users will have 2 mac boxes at home/work on want to edit the same files on both machines. The simplest way to do that would be to put those document in the (i)cloud, but in case the document is sensitive you may not want to this.

That being said, the concept of file sharing and relative permissions is way to foggy for end-users.

I could 'solve' it because I know about Terminal and Unix commands, but how many users know about these?

I also wonder what happens in case 2 users edit the same file at the same moment? 🤓 Although I have 3 Macs I am not going to try that!

Again: thanx for the chat!

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Answer 9

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,316 points

Jan 7, 2023 4:43 AM in response to reinvdo

Almost none. Server used to provide a GUI to create the ACL, but that was dropped shortly before Server was dumped altogether.

I have helped several small/home office setups with the necessary ACL. That’s very few people who have needed it, even if you bumped it by several orders of magnitude.

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You don’t have permission to unlock the file

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