I have a External USB-C mounted drive from MacSales.com and when I get info on the drive it is stuck on "Fetching" for both the owner and group and the only way I can get it to work again is by selecting the "Ignore ownership on this volume" Using a M1 MacBook Pro on OS 14.3.1. How do I fix this permanently, I tried Apples Disk Utility and it does not fix it.
MacBook Pro 14″
If you don’t mind using the terminal, you can just copy and paste in this command and it should reset the owner to your user for all files and folders on the drive.
sudo chown -R `id -un`:staff /Volumes/Photos
sudo is substitute user do and will elevate your admin user privileges to run the change owner command to set your username (`id -un`) as owner and the standard group (staff) as the group on all files and folders on the drive, “Photos.”
When sudo asks for your password, just enter it and hit return. It won’t echo anything to the screen.
If you don’t mind using the terminal, you can just copy and paste in this command and it should reset the owner to your user for all files and folders on the drive.
sudo chown -R `id -un`:staff /Volumes/Photos
sudo is substitute user do and will elevate your admin user privileges to run the change owner command to set your username (`id -un`) as owner and the standard group (staff) as the group on all files and folders on the drive, “Photos.”
When sudo asks for your password, just enter it and hit return. It won’t echo anything to the screen.
Stretching normally means that the user ID for that entity on the drive does not exist on the Mac. For instance, if you created that external drive on a different Mac with a different user, it may not match what you have on the current Mac.
If you can explain how you got it that way, might make it easier.
You can use the chmod command to change them all, or Batchmod provides a GUI interface to change permissions.
Is it a Photos Library?
Do not run it on a Sparse Bundle Disk Image. That is not a file but a folder full of individual stripes.
Run it on a regular file.
Well you still didn’t provide an answer, how can you fix it which is what I was asking. Is there a third party utility that can correct the ownership permissions. Will copying the data to a new drive fix the issue?
As best as I can determine I noticed it after I used SuperDuper from ShirtPocket Software I use the SparseImage onto another drive but did a erase (the image) and install to copy where I usually do a copy difference. Later I went to use Lightroom and the Catalogue is on the Photos drive and it could not open it. I checked the Permissions of the LightRoom Folder and it was stuck on Fetching. I then checked the Permissions on the Drive itself and it was also Fetching. But other folders on the Photo drive have the correct permissions while others do not. I also have Time Machine set up but right now the Photos Drive is not included. I replaced my 10 year old iMac (Late 2014) with my newer M1 laptop when Adobe stoped updating Photoshop/Lightroom for BigSur however it has been working properly for the last 6 months until just recently. Waiting till next month to order a 4 bay 8TB Raid 5 from Macsales for my Photos drive and at the same time was going to get 2 12TB Enterprise drives (a bit of a overkill) to replace with a new TimeMachine and my 2nd Backup Drive (besides TimeMachine). Waiting until Apple does the next update to the MacStuio M3 Max is what I am waiting for. I hate to point finger at a Vendor and can not say for sure that it was caused by SuperDuper, have used it in one form or another for over a decade with no issues. Really can't say for sure what caused the issue. Now you have too much information.
BatchMod makes me a little nervous looks like it has not been updated in ages and was in beta even then. Kind of surprised there is not an Apple Supported utility to address this issue has to appear with users upgrading computers and replacing older drives. Looks like chmod is what I will have to try but I would like to know if it is ok to try it on the Disk Image first? /Volumes/SuperDupper/PhotosBackup.sparsebundle it would be mounted first of course. What I am trying to get to is a clean drive before I get my replacement Photos Raid 5 Drives next month. I actually knew what sudo was believe it or not but not how chmod used your username and set to group "staff" was interesting to know. Any suggestions as to copying the files over to the new drive, I was going to use SuperDuper application. Thanks a lot for your help!!!!!
The problem with BatChmod is there doesn't seem to be a legitimate place to download it.
All it does is run the chmod and chown commands like what I provided. There isn't anything that would go out of date. I searched for it and could only find it on all the sketchy software aggregation sites like cnet, softonic, etc.
That’s why I asked first. Also your experience with BatChmod was one of the reasons it made me nervous, too many unverified sites to download from, no telling what you might pickup just by downloading the file.
If you are comfortable typing the command, you can just put your username in instead of `id -un`. I just used that so you don't have to try to replicate the command.
External Drive Permissions stuck on "Fetching"