Access to external disks now requires a password. How to fix?

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Level 1

69 points

Access to external disks now requires a password. How to fix?

Hi There,

Creating new folders or removing them on my external disks now requires a password. Also, my back-up application (Retrospect) no longer has access to its catalogue file that's on an external disk. It just started happening as of December 2nd.

I added my user to the 'Sharing & permissions' window of the disks and 'Applied to enclosed items' and can now make/remove folders but this hasn't given Retrospect access to its catalogue file (see attached).

I've checked/tried...

Retrospect has 'Full disk access' which it does (see attached)
MacOS recognises the .rbc file as a Retrospect file via 'Open with' which it does
Run Disk First Aid from Disk Utility

Questions...

How do you give a specific app (Retrospect) access to external disks?
Does anyone know why my user/access was removed so I can avoid in future?

Any help much appreciated. Cheers, Ben

MacOS 13.5
MacBook Pro –> CalDigit TS3 Plus Dock –> External disks
Retrospect 19.2 (latest)

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.5

Posted on Dec 13, 2023 10:31 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

cmscss Author

Level 1

69 points

Dec 16, 2023 11:23 AM in response to cmscss

@HWTech Auto-updates is on for security updates but MacOS is bugging me about 10.14 so other 10.13 updates are buried somewhere.

@Barney-15E I heard back from Retrospect and it turns out you can no longer keep the Catalogue file within backup directory. Moving it to the root of the drive has fixed the issue.

Thanks for the help and suggestions. Cheers

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Answer 2

Dec 15, 2023 7:11 PM in response to cmscss

You are behind on your Ventura updates. Maybe one of the later Ventura update patches has resolved the issue. Ventura is up to at least 13.6.1 or perhaps 13.6.2.

Has the Retrospect app received any updates which may have caused the change? Or are there any Retrospect updates to install which may resolve the issue? More than likely you will need to contact Retrospect support for assistance.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,636 points

Dec 13, 2023 2:07 PM in response to cmscss

Is there a reason you need permissions enabled on the drive? You can just Ignore Ownership…

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Answer 4

Dec 16, 2023 5:35 PM in response to cmscss

cmscss wrote:

@HWTech Auto-updates is on for security updates but MacOS is bugging me about 10.14 so other 10.13 updates are buried somewhere.

I assume you mean 13.x and 14.x which are Ventura and Sonoma respectively whereas 10.14.x and 10.13.x are older versions of macOS Mojave and High Sierra respectively.

Updates for macOS 13.x Ventura will be located in a blue hyperlink just below the notice to upgrade to macOS 14.x Sonoma. When you click the "More" link it will pop-up information about those other older updates for your current OS and allow you to install them while remaining on macOS 13.x.

Glad Retrospect came back with the solution to your problem. Thanks for following up with the solution.

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Answer 5

cmscss Author

Level 1

69 points

Dec 13, 2023 3:04 PM in response to Barney-15E

I have no idea why, I certainly didn't set it up that way. However, ticking the disks to 'ignore ownership' still doesn't grant Retrospect access for some reason. So maybe these issues are unrelated?

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Access to external disks now requires a password. How to fix?

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