Strange User Permissions/Group OS X Lion

I too had the Fetching... permission via Get Info on files/folders after I made the switch to OS X Lion. I ignored it for the longest time.

Then as I continued to use Lion, I noticed a ton of SBBOD when opening Preview, iMovie, iPhoto, TextEdit, Mail - pretty much any app that I was using. The apps weren't hanging per se, but I was getting the SBBOD upon opening the application every time. I just couldn't figure out what was going on. I tried everything to figure out why this was happening - even using Disk Utility to repair permissions but nothing would take care of the problem. I have 8GB of main memory and I know it wasn't that.

Well, I too have been using Migration Assistant since the days of Tiger but this time I did an in-place upgrade to Lion. Nonetheless, my permissions on my home folder did not seem correct based on what everyone was saying in this thread. So I ran the procedure to reset the permissions of my home folder. The procedure completed without a hitch.

Well, it seems that my system is much speedier and SSBBOD is occuring much less and when it doesn it's only for a couple of turns - no where near as long as it was before.

If this truly was the problem, why is it that if I have access to the application and to the data files, that permissions for Group and Other would cause performance problems? This makes no sense to me.

For the record this is nothing to do with upgrading or migrating. I've a brand new kit, vanilla Lion install with servers and clients and it appears seemingly at random. Folders I'm sharing display some users/groups correctly and some as Fetching. The dodgy users appear fine for other shares.

I've seen it happen when you delete a user from the OD and you then look at a folder that the deleted user had permisssion to (a la Windows showing S-1-xxx-xxxx.... for a user that no longer exists in the AD.)

But it also happens to users that do still exist (and are functioning normally) so this isn't the only reason why it happens.

Thanks! This advice and link allowed me to finally eject Time Machine without an error message.

I've given up on this and have the advantage in that I'm adding a new(used) iMac i7 27". While my system slow downs, Safari issues, occasional kernel panics and SBBOD may not be directly attributable to permissions being skewed - it's certainly a factor.

Even my 2011 MacMini started slowing down and having problems after Migrating migrations upon migrations all the way up from the 1990s across 8 different Macs (maybe more)...

I'm now hand installing everything from scratch on an clean install - one program at a time - and only the programs I actually use. Part of the problem is of my own making - adding programs over the years even if I didn't use them... or maybe use them a few times and then don't any more. So I will likely go from over 400 programs on the machine - to about 100.

On the source I'm actually very organized - one single user account - and only have the following user folders - Documents, Downloads, Dropbox, Business, Movies, Music, Pictures, Sites

I should be able to simply drag copy all of these one by one from a cloned drive to the new machine.

Permissions WILL STILL BE AN ISSUE however.

(If I still see "fetching" under those copies however - on an entirely new machine - different username - why not just DELETE IT?) - Will update with results as time allows...

In this case - I think all I would have to do is go to the top level directory of each of these copied folders and -

Get Info -

Permissions -

Add - MyUserName(me)

Add - any other users needed (Guest, Everyone, Admin)

(Optional - Delete old users)

GearTool - Apply to Enclosed Items

I'm not sure if SystemPreferences/FileSharing has any relevance here - but (for my personal needs) I also would make every single one of those directories "shared" - so I can freely go back and forth between my MacBook Pro or other Macs on the network. All of the lockdowns and permissions blockages in OSX have progressively been dismaying coming from OS9 where things were much more open and free. But time marches on and we must begrudgingly, change. lol

Anyway - for anyone else who is fed up and needs to do something drastic like this to relieve permissions and/or other system issues - this procedure can also be done without a second Mac. I would recommend having TWO full bootable backups before attempting this. With those in place - boot from OS disk - Disk Utility reformat the internal drive (GUID partition for INTEL Macs) - Reinstall OSX and all extra Applications etc. as on a new machine - create new User (part of setting up from a clean install) - and then install your programs all over again - one by one. Finally - copy your folders over and verify/change their permissions.

Tip - if you have a spare hard drive - don't delete those downloads, installers, DMG files etc. you use when rebuilding your system - KEEP COPIES on the spare drive. Many times they will also include an uninstaller you may want - also - if you need to do this procedure again it will make it much faster to have them all in one place! And don't forget to keep documentation of all your serial numbers, license codes, user name and passwords etc. there are many programs to help you keep track of them - but there's nothing like a good old fashioned spread sheet!

It's a lot of work and seems extreme, but hopefully worth it. If anyone who is more advanced than I would like to add to this or correct me on something - feel more than free!

I look forward to seeing what a system without any cobwebs can perform like - it's been years - maybe even decades since I've had a full house cleaning! The 2.93GHz i7 is also the highest end Mac I've ever owned so I hope to be dazzled! :-)

I had the same problem.

There are 2 steps to fixing the issue

1 (as mentioned above) sudo dscl . append /Groups/staff GroupMembership `whoami`

will add your user account to the group staff.

2 modify all of your files and folders to the group staff

cd (moves you to your home directory)

sudo find . -exec chown `whoami`:staff {} \; & (this will run in the background until finished.)

any files/folders you create from here out should have the right user/group ids. to prove this

do

touch x

ls -al x

-rw-r--r-- 1 you staff 0 Jan 5 15:38 x

rinse and repeat as required on your other disks.

Im not sure of the exact ownership of the files and folders in time machine, mentioned as one of the issues here, but changing the top directory in your time machine disk seems to fix this one.

cd /Volumes/(your tm disk)

sudo chown `whoami`:staff .

worked for me.

Following installation of Lion I am now also experiencing "fetching" permissions issues, but only on a few files. Unfortunately one of them is a large folder containing a lot of work in progress, making this "fetching" issue a real problem. Because this problem impacts only a few folders and files, I do not want to risk overwriting permissions on all three drives and the external.

Interesting to note that no permissions windows show "staff" as some commenters have noted previously, just my name, system, admin, and everyone. Permissions have been a recurring issue for my Mac Pro ever since a Leopard security update crashed it a couple of years ago. I now dread downloading updates, and this OS update has its problems too.

Some of my own permissions problems may be due to having used a different email address for my iTunes store account. When installing Lion I used my Mac e-mail address rather than the alternate email used for iTunes. This seems to have smoothed the transition for Lion, with the exception of these random permissions issues.

It would be very helpful if Apple had a site on which users could blend accounts / e-mails and associated data, much like we do with iCal home / business / desktop / iPhone now. Imagine a GUI into which a user could enter their various e-mail addresses, and Apple would then recognize each of these as admin. Risky if it's cracked, but a fail-safe could be an Apple e-mail sent to each user requesting permission to proceed. Following user OKs, permissions could then be fixed in iCloud and extended to all devices - desktop, mobiles, etc.

Hi all,

came here after I noticed this 'fetching' thing on my iTunes folder, and, being a bit paranoid, deleted it (strangely enough, I didn't have to click the lock before deleting it). Them I started reading about this whole thing on here and now I'm worried if/how bad I screwed things up. So far I have noticed no ill effects - I seem to be able to play all my songs, copied one to the desktop (since someone here said that files without the 'fetching' permission can't be copied), but I haven't tried to back up to a separate hard drive with Time Machine yet. Can anyone tell me how worried I should be?

Any input is appreciated...

Hi,

since I had a problem with PS instalation: it reported lack of possibility of reading/writing its configuration files, I have followed Adobe recommendation to create a new user with admin rights and use the new account.

It has worked with PS however I had to move files from the old user to the newly created user account.

I deleted the old user without its files and tried to copy them to folders of the new user.

That created a problem with 'fetching' that I believe is solved with hints from this thread, however does not help to work with particular files within folders: the have permissions for everyone, staff and the new user, but reguire to enter password each time you want to copy them or delete. Since there are lots of them it is pretty anoying.

There is double permission for 'everyone' with different rights: 'custom' and 'no 'access'

It can be sorted out file by file but this is too much time consuming.

Changing permissions for the folder with option to impact containing files does not solve the problem.

--> How to ged rid of the necessity to enter password for each file to copy/delete/move?

has anyone gotten any response back from apple? i also left a message in feedback with no response!

I am having strange problems with users & permissions since upgrading to Lion.

For some reason, avery now and then Lion removes a user with permissions from certain folders.

I have two computers, with the same username and passwords, but syncing between them has become completey unpredictable. I have followed a deep-root reset of ACL and permissions, twice, on both computers via the recovery-boot.

The problem still returned after a few weeks. Carbon Copy Cloner is usually the first sign something is amiss. But it's not CCC. I can actually see now that on my desktop the main user, the Admin NB!, no longer has access to read & write to certain files. Removed by Lion!

Lion and permissions are a nightmare. Not being able to sync my 5-15 Gb databses is a major problem and Apple should take notice.

I'm also experiencing the "Fetching..." problem. I granted the group "Freelancers" read&write permission to the folder (also a share point) using Server.app. Server.app interface suggests the permissions have been applied however Finder simply indicates "Fetching...". The folder is being shared Mac OS 10.7.4 Server via AFP and SMB protocols.

The bugs in Lion Server are very frustrating.

This solved my problem - even on external HD's

http://www.ohanaware.com/permissionsreset/

Ok, I have just tried using the permission reset programme, it did nothing for my problem.

I have read through this entire thread, and can't see a solution anywhere.

I, like many other users on this forum, am not particualrly in tune with the technical side of computers, so a lot of the jargon used here is lost on me... but I am still affected by this problem and would really appreciate somebody helping me.

I had a mac book pro running a previous OS (i don't know which, it was only a year or 2 old). It was stolen.

I had it 'time machine' backed-up on a separate drive.

I bought a new mac book pro shortly after (running 10.7).

I tried to transfer my old back ups to the new machine, but it wouldn't let me. I get the "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access “whatever”" message.

I have gone on using my new mac in spite of this, and occasionally transfer some stuff across successfully, others not.

For example, I have to have the backup disc connected to play itunes, none of that will transfer to my new mac.

I want to transfer my (large) itunes folder, and my pictures and ducuments folders to my new mac,from the backup disc, but I can't do it in one go, I would have to do it file by file, because of this persmissions thing (and yes, the 'fetching' thing is there if I 'get info').

Is there a way to fix this...simply?

Please help, it's driving me nuts, and leaving my setup very disorganised.

Thanks

One of the things I discovered when trying to restore my harddrive was that if I copied the directory, say iTunes, to another external harddrive (I used a networked drive), and then copied it back to my laptop... the permissions were correct! It doesn't even remotely make sense, but it worked!

Confirmed worked for me. The Get Info window is simply hanging waiting for a response to the property fetch for RealName on the old group named after the original user - which explains why I've not even noticed this in several years and it's just bugged me tonight!

Just to be clear, all I did was add the RealName property to the old group - no need to flip the group across to staff or any of the rest of the stuff in the original post, just the following command in a handy Terminal window from an Administrator account, logout and login to refresh Finder.

sudo dscl . -append /Groups/fred RealName Fred

(just to be clear.... change 'fred' and 'Fred' to your short username and a nice pretty version with a cute capital if you feel so inclined).