Shared folder read-only for other users

Question

Level 1

118 points

Shared folder read-only for other users

We setup a new iMac with three accounts for members of the family. Two have admin rights. We installed Quicken Essentials 2010 for Mac, and put the Quicken data file in the Users/Shared/Quicken folder. Everything worked great for user #1 who copied the file to the shared Quicken folder.

User #2 (also an admin) was not able to open Quicken, as an error stating the file was read-only. I checked permissions, and set user1 and user2 with read/write and everyone with read/write. Basically, all permissions on that data file are read/write for everyone.

That still did not work. Then, I set user2 as the owner. Now, user2 can use Quicken and the file, but user1 cannot. Same error.

How do we get it so that files in the Shared folder are really shared and accessible to everyone?

Mac Mini Server with 1TB and OSX Server 10.6.5, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 15, 2010 1:16 PM

Reply

Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Dec 15, 2010 2:00 PM in response to Darryl Mylrea

I don't have Essentials, but strongly suggest that each user have their own data file. Alternatively, contact Intuit or visit their community site: https://qlc.intuit.com/app/full_page and post there.

Reply

Answer 2

Darryl Mylrea Author

Level 1

118 points

Dec 15, 2010 2:04 PM in response to baltwo

Well, I wasn't really thinking it was a Quicken thing as much as a permissions thing in OSX, since I can manually change file permissions and make it work for whichever user I assign as owner.

I thought the SHARED folder was just that, and that everything in there was R/W for everyone?

Reply

Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Dec 15, 2010 2:22 PM in response to Darryl Mylrea

Could be, but your changes aren't working, so I suspect there might be something unique to Essentials that I'm missing. Never had an issue with Quicken stuff. I don't share anything on my single-user machines, so I can't address that issue.

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 23, 2010 9:33 AM in response to Darryl Mylrea

This is a Quicken Essentials problem, not a Mac OS permissions problem. You're not alone, but I haven't seen a solution except using Dropbox.

https://qlc.intuit.com/post/show_full/dVQc1al5Kr35A4acfArImM
https://qlc.intuit.com/post/show_full/cbJohMjBKr37tgacfAYHXM

-Dave

Reply

Answer 5

Mar 4, 2011 6:41 AM in response to daylesworth

Actually, I believe this is a permissions problem. I am having the same issue with sharing iTunes media, amongst other things. There is a fair bit of chat about this on the Net, most of it recommending use of ACL's to cause cascading permissions to be set and updated. It seems ridiculous to me that multiple users on one machine can not easily share a "read/write" environment.

Reply

Answer 6

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Mar 4, 2011 4:04 PM in response to Darryl Mylrea

The Shared folder is there for sharing, since everyone can access it. Everyone can read and write to the folder, but it is up to the owner of a particular file to allow others to write to it - file permissions normally aren't automatically modified just by placing them in the Shared folder. Access Control List entries can be added to a folder to provide some additional inherited permissions, but since you have tried giving everyone write permission for a file I suspect there is something additional that Quicken is doing.

Reply

Answer 7

Jun 28, 2011 8:55 PM in response to Darryl Mylrea

The solution that I discovered to work: Place your quicken data file(s) on an external drive (or create a partition if you only have access to a single hard drive) and have permissions on that drive (o volume) set to "ignore ownership on this volume" It works for me. Both accounts can now access my single quicken data file. To set the permissions on a drive/volume, select the drive or volume, choose "get info" from the file menu and at the bottom of the get info window mark the box "Ignore ownership on this volume".

It might be worth your while to spend ten bucks on an ebook titled Take Control of Sharing Files in Snow Leopard. Take Control of Sharing Files in Snow Leopard discusses

sharing digital media files.

http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/snow-leopard-sharing?pt=INTERNAL

Reply