Can not rename ~/Movies folder (can rename all others)

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Level 2

279 points

Can not rename ~/Movies folder (can rename all others)

I am trying to rename my Movie folder for troubleshooting reasons. I want to change Movies → Movies.old to test some errors I have been getting. I have been able to change every other name in my Home Folder, but not Movies.

Does anyone have any idea of what could cause this?

G5 PPC 1.8 Ghz 2 Ghz RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 17" 2.16 Ghz MBP 1 GB RAM (10.6 Snow Leopard)

Posted on Feb 10, 2011 2:34 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 10, 2011 3:12 PM in response to TGH

There are certain folders which are reserved by the System - I'm surprised if that's the only one you haven't been able to change. Folders such as Movies, Documents, Pictures, Music, Library, Public and Sites should be left alone.

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Answer 2

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Feb 10, 2011 3:14 PM in response to TGH

Movies has the Deny Delete ACL set on it, which prevents a user from changing or deleting it. Documents, Library, Desktop, and the other OS X supplied home folder subfolders have it too.

Run this command in Terminal to remove this ACL from your Movies folder:

chmod -N ~/Movies

You then should be able to rename that folder with Finder. If you want to put the Deny Delete ACL back on, use this:

chmod +a "everyone deny delete" ~/Movies

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,560 points

Feb 10, 2011 3:15 PM in response to TGH

Yes, you don't have permission to do it. You can change it in the Terminal. Search for the unix move (mv) command.

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Answer 4

Feb 10, 2011 3:24 PM in response to TGH

TGH - please be aware (as you possibly already are) that if you want to follow the advice in this thread about using the Terminal you must enter the data exactly as given, including spaces, and be very careful what you do. You can do immense damage in the Terminal, and there are no 'are you sure' warnings.

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Answer 5

TGH Author

Level 2

279 points

Feb 10, 2011 4:54 PM in response to TGH

Everyone, thanks for the advice (and warnings). I do appreciate it. Rest assured, this is not my first time 'round the bend, so I'm careful. I did figure out the solution and it was Király's post that got me moving in the right direction.

I didn't do exactly what you posted, I stayed with a process I'm more familiar with. In Terminal I did the following:

1. ls -le ~/ (this gave me the permissions and ACL's) I saw ~/Movies had 0: group:everyone deny delete

2. chmod -a# 0 ~/Movies (removed the 0 ACL entry)

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