Lost permissions to all external hard drives

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Level 1

8 points

Lost permissions to all external hard drives

I am on a MacBookPro on the latest version (I've checked software updates and I'm all up to date).

A few weeks ago I had to bring in my mac to the genius bar for a repair. It needed a new track pad (stopped responding), and to reinstall Mail (had gotten corrupt).

When I picked my computer back up all seemed fine, until I tried to play music, access photos and some other items on my external hard drives (And even some files on my internal hard drive). I can't play music because it says I don't have access to the drives.

I went to the Disk Utility, however "Repair Disk Permissions" is grayed out for every single external hard drive. "Verify Disk Permissions" is also grayed out. I then tried to go to the hard drive in the Finder - right-clicked, and clicked "Get Info" the external hard drives are all locked and the locked checkbox is grayed out. Permissions is not editable at all and just says "you have permission to read this drive"

I tried doing this (based on some searches I did on this topic):
sudo chown root "/Volumes/volumename/"
sudo chmod 1775 "/Volumes/volumename/"
sudo -k

but nothing appears to be working.

Please Help!

15" Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 19, 2011 12:03 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

aramage

Level 1

25 points

Jan 20, 2011 2:48 AM in response to DJDiva5

try

sudo chown -RL -v root "/Volumes/volumename/"
sudo chmod -RL -v 775 "/Volumes/volumename/"

not quite sure what sudo -k does but you need to have -RL in the command.

The -RL option makes the command apply the permissions to the hierarchies as well as the files inside them. the L option tells the command to follow symbolic links. if you dont have permission to view a directory you dont have permission to view the files within.

-v just makes the command visible on the screen so you can keep track of what it is doing

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Answer 2

DJDiva5 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 20, 2011 5:33 AM in response to aramage

Thank you for the help!

I tried that, but it's still not working. The drives still say I'm not the owner of them an all options to unlock, or change permissions are hidden or grayed out.

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Answer 3

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Jan 20, 2011 10:11 PM in response to DJDiva5

Select the disk and choose File > Get Info.

Click the disclosure triangle next to Sharing & Permissions to expand that section.

Deselect the “Ignore ownership on this volume” checkbox.

Run those terminal commands again.

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Answer 4

DJDiva5 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 21, 2011 1:20 PM in response to KJK555

That option isn't available on the external hard drive.

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Answer 5

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Jan 21, 2011 3:12 PM in response to DJDiva5

run this terminal command on each drive that is locked

sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/"<volume name>"
note: quotes not needed if volume name has no spaces

Kj

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Answer 6

Feb 1, 2011 10:02 AM in response to DJDiva5

Run it through Disk Utillity. That's all it took to get my permissions fixed. Turns out there was some minor corruption to do with the headers. Clicked "Repair Disk" and voila all was well. Also to be on the safe side, ran "Repair Disk Permissions" for the internal hard drive as well.

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Answer 7

DJDiva5 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 2, 2011 7:14 AM in response to manon1165

I am wondering if it's because the drive is Fat32 (so I could use it on a PC if I needed to).

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Answer 8

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Feb 3, 2011 3:26 PM in response to DJDiva5

It is.

Hook it up to a windows machine and run chkdsk on it. You can't do anything with it with
diskutility (repair) and finder (permissions).

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Answer 9

Oct 23, 2013 12:19 PM in response to DJDiva5

I updated to Mavericks OSX 10.9 and had a second hard drive attached.

When I opened the folder of the second hard drive the folder was empty, even though Get Info showed the space was being used.

I tried PRAM reset, and verify disk in Disk Utility as well as in Recovery Mode Disk Utility. In both DIsk Utility situations, the Verify Disk Permissions was grayed out.

What I was finally able to do was connect the Macbook Pro to another Mac, boot up in Target mode, Get Info on the Folder and deselect "Ignore Ownership on Folder" then open the folder.

All the folders and files were present. I made a new folder and moved everything there, then started the computer back up.

Good luck!

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Answer 10

Feb 14, 2016 4:07 PM in response to aramage

My 3 terraByte external drive had been moved to so many different accounts with varying permission schemes, that it was being slow to show folder content, and slow to move data on the same drive. This fixed my problems and now even moving 100,000 photos to another folder on the same drive only took a few seconds. Before this it would take about 9 hours to transfer on the same drive. Thanks!

"aramageJan 20, 2011 2:48 AM Re: Lost permissions to all external hard drives
in response to DJDiva5

try

sudo chown -RL -v root "/Volumes/volumename/"
sudo chmod -RL -v 775 "/Volumes/volumename/"

not quite sure what sudo -k does but you need to have -RL in the command.

The -RL option makes the command apply the permissions to the hierarchies as well as the files inside them. the L option tells the command to follow symbolic links. if you dont have permission to view a directory you dont have permission to view the files within.

-v just makes the command visible on the screen so you can keep track of what it is doing"

Reply