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Lion - Preferences not saving after Sharing/Permission changes

I decided to go with a fresh install of Lion at the weekend on my iMac and Mac Mini and came across a strange bug...

Basically, when changing sharing settings it seems to 'corrupt' a user's preferences. This 'corruption' is evidenced by not persisting (after a reboot) say the removal of a dock item or changing what the sidebar displays in Finder. If I make a change like this (or a series of changes) and restart my machine the change(s) made since last restart are reverted.

I came across this issue when undertaking the following:

On iMac: Shared out an attached hard drive that I use for Time Machine (so I could use the same drive for Time Machine on my Mac Mini)
On iMac: Changed the permissions on the 'user' folder so that Mac Mini could see it.
On Mac Mini: Changed the permissions on the 'user' folder so that iMac could see it.
On Mac Mini: Enabled screen sharing.

The above actions resulted on the 'corruption' of the user preference file(s) on both the iMac and Mac Mini.

I found nothing on Google and as I couldn't sort I re-installed Lion and performed the following actions:

On Mac Mini - Changed the permissions on the 'user' folder so that iMac could see it.
On Mac Mini - Enabled screen sharing.

Again, the above actions resulted on the 'corruption' of the user preference file(s) on the Mac Mini.

I then tried creating a new user account and making the desired permission/screen sharing changes. More specifcally, I did the following on a clean Lion install:

On Mac Mini: Set Up a NEW Administrator Account.
On Mac Mini: Reboot.
On Mac Mini: Log In with NEW Administrator Account.
On Mac Mini: Changed the permissions on both 'user' folders (DEFAULT & NEW Administrator) so that iMac could see it.
On Mac Mini: Removed 4 unwanted icons from the dock.
On Mac Mini: Reboot
On Mac Mini: Log In with NEW Administrator Account to find that previoulsy deleted icons had reappeared. 😮
On Mac Mini: Reboot
On Mac Mini: Log In with DEFAULT Administrator Account.
On Mac Mini: Removed 4 unwanted icons from the dock.
On Mac Mini: Reboot
On Mac Mini: Log In with DEFAULT Administrator Account to find that previously deleted icons had reappeared. 😮 😮

Sorry for the long post but the devil is in the detail. If anyone has any ideas as to how to solve or is able to replicate the problem I'd been keen to know.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 25, 2011 5:42 AM

25 replies

niiice

Level 1

0 points

Nov 14, 2011 8:27 AM in response to Mark23

Thanks man!!! You saved my day!!! 🙂

Mark23

Level 4

994 points

Nov 14, 2011 8:44 AM in response to niiice

You're most welcome!

Dec 20, 2011 3:15 PM in response to Mark23

A big thank you to Mark23 this actually worked, couldn't believe how easy it was...All the other suggestions would have been arduous and extremely inconvenient...

thanks again Mark I'm not sure how you were able to find this solution but for anyone looking it WORKS!

jakub.s

Level 1

5 points

Dec 24, 2011 3:41 AM in response to Toby Fulton

Worked for me.

thanks, Toby.

Dec 26, 2011 3:31 AM in response to hornet330

Thx, worked for me 🙂

Lemich

Level 1

4 points

Feb 8, 2012 4:14 PM in response to Mark23

Just bought a new MacMini and ran into this problem. Beating my head against the desk I can accross Mark23's post. It worked! Mark23 probably saved Apple a ton of $ (not like they need it now-a-days). Thank you!

Apr 4, 2012 5:16 PM in response to Lemich

Well it didn't work for me ... system preferences still aren't being saved :-(

Apr 20, 2012 12:39 PM in response to markperth

Yesterday I posted a thread about privilege as well, it's about me changing my iCloud password and suddenly my iPhone cannot sync to the computer, saying I lack privilage. While I did the update via Wi-Fi it's still rather bizarre that I don't have permission to sync my own device right after password change.

Kimchee9

Level 1

0 points

Apr 22, 2012 8:21 AM in response to BallisticJack

Ok all. I am not a Mac person but this worked for me...

Go to finder and open up you Get Info on your HD (whatever it is named; I think the default is "Machintosh HD").

In the lower right corner is a lock click on it and provide your password.

Change the access rights to read & write on the group with your user ID

Click the settings icon at the bottom and "Apply to enclosed items..." This will take a bit to finish.

Then open the disk utility and run the repair disk permissions on the same HD.

Once that is complete, restart.

That fixed my permission problems... hope it helps.

Jan 22, 2013 11:57 AM in response to lotusone

wow. yes it fix my problems. after logging out of user account and logging back in, my destop preferences would be gone and reset, my itunes would ask me (again) to agree to the terms of agreement, i couldn't delete mail accounts without them reappearing, and after changing my icloud password online, i was screw-ed on my mac cause nothing would sinc despite trying to update the password in my preferences. i don't normally go into my terminal, BUT THIS TOTALLY WORKED. Cheers yo.

Lion - Preferences not saving after Sharing/Permission changes