Change Permissions Of All Files/Folders At Once?

Although several possbile answers were given I have one solution extra

For me the standard Finder method with "apply to enclosed items" did not answer my needs.
Neither did the Terminal method (I had to write too many lines)

Because I noticed that the Finder - apply to enclosed items- did not work for all (sub)folders and files.
I needed another solution for many files and folders at once.

Accidentally I found the solution that worked for me;

I created new folders and copied or moved all content from the protected folder into the new one.
Because some subfolders or files were protected I had to give the admin password.
But only just once and not per file or folder.

Afterwards, all folders, subfolders and files were readable and accessible again.

posted on march 20th 2017

Hi

Are you talking about stuff in your Documents folder? If so, then you can run this command in Terminal (Applications -> Utilities).

chown username:staff ~/Documents/*

(Replace username with your short-name - the name of your home folder)

But you can't go chown username:staff ~/* because there are some things in your home folder, that have different permissions.

😀

Taylor

[Mac OS X: How to change user short name or home directory name|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428]

If you did follow these steps:

Return to default desktop, apparent "loss" of home directory, (it can happen spontaneously too)...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854

Might try BatchMod, it's much better/easier than the Finder for recursive Permission changes...

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6440

Once running, drag a Folder to it, change the rights to the new you, check the Apply to enclosed items box.

Sheden wrote:

Not just Documents; Pictures and everything else I've used has been affected too. However, Documents would be a big help, so I tried that command in Terminal and this was my result

Last login: Fri Apr 29 20:01:15 on console

Welcome to Darwin!

sheri:~ Sheden$ chown sheden:staff ~/Documents/*

chown: sheden: Invalid argument

sheri:~ Sheden$

The reason you are seeing the "Invalid argument" is because you have not entered your username correctly.

UNIX interprets everything exactly how it is writtent (capitals etc)

So you need to type chown Sheden:staff ~/Documents/*

😀

How about using the Finder "Get Info" on the Documents folder and then using Ownership & Permissions to effect the change, including enclosed items?

That doesn't always work. I have found that using Terminal is the most effective, and easiest way to achieve this.

dash R

The important thing is to maybe reply with the final solution to your problem. 🙂

The final solution that worked for me in Yosemite OS X ver. 10.10.1 (thanks to old comm guy):

1. In Finder, rt click on the damaged folder and choose "Get Info"
2. In the pop up Info window:
   • At the bottom corner, unlock Sharing & Permissions
   • The following permissions should be set:
     • username set to Read & Write (if this is missing, add it using the + icon at the bottom left corner)
     • staff set to Read only
     • everyone set to Read only
   • Then and only then, click the gear icon at the bottom left corner near the + - icons.

     choose: Apply to enclosed items...

   • At the bottom corner, lock Sharing & Permissions