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Level 4

1,924 points

Lion Permissions Problem

I'm struggling with what I think is a permissions problem on Lion..

I purchased a new MBAir 11" and restored my files by copying them manually from a backup of my home folder - this is always how I have done it. I did have to change the Library folder flag to unhidden as found somewhere else on this forum.

The first issue I encountered was that every time I logged out and logged back in, the machine was 'reset' to the state it was in hours earlier. I couldn't change any settings, they would reset themselves. (e.g. changing trackpad settings would reset when I exited system preferences). Also if I used Safari to browse a bunch of sites, none of the history was saved. The history would show everything up to a certain point and wouldn't save anything past that.

I created a new user account and that account was obviously fine. So I copied all of my files from the old user account to the new user account. The problem I am having now is that any time I try to change a file in my home folder (e.g. rename) i am prompted for my password. I tried to reset permissions but that doesn't help.

Would appreciate any suggestions. TIA.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 11:17 PM

49 replies

Aug 12, 2011 12:09 PM in response to cgDesign

Well, I tried this and I got a message saying Permissions denied.

That's the problem in the first place!

Aug 12, 2011 1:06 PM in response to marysplacestudio

If you're feeling really brave, put "sudo" (without the quotes) and a space before each of those commands.

Aug 12, 2011 1:16 PM in response to cgDesign

Tried it, f****d up the mac, the second command didn´t work at all, after that nothing worked, had to repair permissions from CD.

Aug 12, 2011 1:18 PM in response to stianbrathen

stianbrathen wrote:

the second command didn´t work at all

Please explain what you mean by that. If you weren't able to run the second command I'm not surprised if things were messed up.

Aug 12, 2011 1:21 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Yes, after running the first command, it was IMPOSSIBLE to run the second. Then everything folded.

Aug 12, 2011 1:21 PM in response to stianbrathen

So, do you recommend it?

Aug 12, 2011 1:24 PM in response to stianbrathen

stianbrathen wrote:

Yes, after running the first command, it was IMPOSSIBLE to run the second.

Your message gave me absolutely no useful information about the problem you had when you tried to run the second command.

Aug 12, 2011 1:24 PM in response to stianbrathen

stianbrathen wrote:

So, do you recommend it?

Are you talking to yourself?

Aug 12, 2011 1:25 PM in response to cgDesign

BatChmod (downloaded free with a donate option) fixed all my permission problems. I just chose the User folder and chose "Change ownership and privileges" and Clear ACL's.

It's ridiculous that we're having to even do this!

Aug 12, 2011 1:27 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Perhaps. This happened on thursday, and reconstructing exactly what happened is a little hard. Got a lot of messages from different apps, I don´t remember exactly what it said, but no apps worked after that command. The terminal didn´t work either, could not get it to run the second command...

After repairing the permissions from the CD things worked again, but iCal and Mail keeps nagging.

Message was edited by: stianbrathen

Aug 12, 2011 1:31 PM in response to marysplacestudio

will try that one

Aug 12, 2011 1:44 PM in response to stianbrathen

stianbrathen wrote:

The terminal didn´t work either, could not get it to run the second command...

Did you quit the Terminal utility between running those commands? Do you remember anything about what happened when you tried to run the second command?

Aug 12, 2011 1:49 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Yes, the terminal was quit between the commands. That could be a problem?

Aug 12, 2011 1:52 PM in response to stianbrathen

stianbrathen wrote:

the terminal was quit between the commands.

I would have run those commands in one Terminal session. After the first command an entire class of permissions declarations are missing. The second command restores them.

Tess888

Level 1

5 points

Aug 21, 2011 8:19 PM in response to cgDesign

This is an error I've run into as well since installing Lion...but I have to admit I'm not brave enough to do as you suggest...it's happened twice, and I've used Time Machine to get back to a normal permissions condition. For me this happened from one minute to the other...everything was working fine, and the next minute I couldn't throw the garbage out without putting in my Admin password. Nasty.... The second time this happened, I started looking in the console app and tried to find out what the heck was heppening. Well, it seems that a troublesome old printer which was migrated over from SL was the cause. The drivers from this migrated printer were messing everything up...so, I did a TM restore and uninstalled the printer from the utilities / printer scanner utility. At that point a message came up that permissions were being repaird AGAIN. So far everything is booting fast (as much as LIon can) and the permissions seem OK...after a couple of stable days I will try to re-install the printer or buy a new one...my old printer is supported in Lion, but it's an antique...almoat 12 years old.

Lion Permissions Problem