How to Fix Permissions (Custom Access and Locks Grayed Out)?

Had an issue where I couldn't even write on Mac OS X Journaled and exFAT disks. This solved it for me:

"You can try removing the system's volume information database, which holds this setting for external drives on the system. To do this, choose "Go to Folder" from the Finder's Go menu, and then type in "/var/db" and press Enter to open the hidden system database folder. In here, locate the file called "volinfo.database" and remove it from this folder (you may need to authenticate to do this)."

Boot into single-user mode and at the prompt enter these commands pressing RETURN after each:

mount -uw /

chown root:admin /

chmod 1775 /

reboot

After rebooting Set the following Directory permissions. You can paste these lines or enter by hand, but be careful to enter them correctly.

sudo su

Enter your admin password when prompted. It will not be echoed.

chown root:admin /Applications

chmod 0775 /Applications

chown root:admin /Library

chmod 1775 /Library

chown root:admin /System

chmod 0775 /System

chown root:admin /Users

chmod 0775 /Users

chmod -R -N /Applications

chown -R :admin /Applications/*

I suggest you first print these instructions out using a large mono-spaced font so you can read them correctly.

What exactly did you do when you "upped the security"? If you did something like apply different permissions to all of the system files, you may have hosed your system.

If you cannot start in single-user mode then you have a likely hardware issue or a completely hosed system.

I have a somewhat similar problem to the OP, except I accidentally misplaced a space (I think) in an Applescript and set the permissions for every single file on my hard drive to:

(Me): Read and write

admin: Read and write

Everyone: Read and write

Disk Utility fixed some things, but not even close to everything.

I tried your instructions, but nothing changed... did you leave anything out? Do I have to 'undo' anything or enter something for the change to take effect?

Many thanks!

Hi same yeasturday i changed permision on all 4 HDD to admin Me read and write and after that can't start up it starts and gets to the grey screen with apple logo thats it what should i do cant delete anything on main hdd got very expencive software no back up

The other more important point why I insist we are talking about a bug is: *why shouldnt the system folder be accessible/permissive in the way the admin wants?* In particular if you expand the rights? If you restrict the privileges I could expect the system to fail, but expanding them shouldnt do any harm. What exactly happens after choosing this confounded button "apply to all subfolders"? What would be the correct way of changing permissions to the startup drive? Why is there this button that claims to do the job but instead is hosing my system? Why cant the disc utility restore the original settings? Do you really want me switch back to Windows?

i changed permision on all 4 HDD to admin (Me) read and write and after that can't start up it starts and gets to the grey screen with apple logo thats it what should i do cant delete anything on main hdd got very expencive software no back up

Hi Bella - this same thing just happened to me - can you share how you got this resolved?? Hopefully not the "hosed your system" per red_menace!

thank you so much for replying Bella13! I was able to resolve without going the expensive and time consuming route you had to go. Here's the thread in case you're interested: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4832297?answerId=21326964022#21326964022 I've been a mac person for a long time and the mac people on these boards ROCK!!!!

I'm going to check out your link, and my quasi-answer isn't as good as everyone else's, but...I found my external hard drive often freezes my computer, also during shut-down or start-up, and locks me out of it for adding files. I just detach or reboot the external driver and the Mac regains control of all its functions.

But the external driver keeps randomly locking me out and demanding I do a disc verification (which seems to automatically reset the permissions but takes 10 minutes).

That works, but I wanted a better solution. On the Mac info app you can click to change the permissions but not if locked out, so I tried aping the other open driver's permissions using chmod in the terminal. I got an error message that I couldn't use that permission. After just giving up and doing the disc verification I clicked the info settings to match the other working driver and the terminal then showed they both had the same permission settings....the very setting it said I couldn't chmod with an error message!

Why wouldn't the terminal take my chmod command? I'm assuming the info app with the permissions click option works on that same premise, and as such also locked up. What does disc verification do which changes that? Can't I do the same, or fool it, from the terminal?

Would sudo have allowed me to copy a file into the locked ext. drive before the fix if the admin still had privileges?

Thank You Kappy!

I had a slightly different problem.

I accidentally locked myself out of my computer by changing access. I was in the info pane and changed the Privilege. Bad idea. Somehow, Admin was denied. I think I changed the privileges to "No Access - Everyone". Like a dunce, I didn't realize that meant Admin too. The hard drive icon was replaced by a folder with the red and white Minus sign, indicating No Access. Oops!

Thinking that rebooting would solve my problem, I rebooted.

And got a gray screen. I had a cursor, but it did nothing. There was no menu ribbon at the top, no Dock and nothing on the desktop but an empty gray wasteland. :'(

Thankfully, I had my other computer running, so I was able to find your post.

The other problem I had was: in the finder, the little pencil icon had a line through it. Not sure how that happened.

Thanks to your commands, I was able to get back into my computer. I did have to go to another site to find out how to do Single User Mode (Command S), the link is a bit old.

I also had to check out some other sites to peice together the proper commands. I had a couple of false starts but was able to get everything going again

So, for all you folks out there with a blank gray screen, a useless pointer and nothing else, here ya go:

Hold down the power button and hold down command S until the apple comes up.

The screen goes black and there will be a lot of command lines.

When prompted, type in the following commands and then hit RETURN after each:

fsck -yf

mount -uw /

chown root:admin /

chmod 1775 /

reboot

My computer was fine after that, so I did not type in any of the other lines you suggested.

Everything seems okay, but my questioon to you is: do I need to type the other stuff in? If so, where do I do that? Thanks!

I am at the point where I know just enough to get into trouble :~)

Cheers!

Thanks Bella,

sudo chflags 0 /volumes/*

sudo chmod a+rx /volumes/*

worked fine for my issue.

Thanks for sharing