Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Finder keeps asking my for my password every time i want to move or delete files, How do i remove this?

Im getting fed up of typing my password every single time i want to move files or delete them, It has only started happening since i upgraded to OS X Lion, any ideas how can i stop this?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 30, 2011 3:30 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 24, 2012 10:22 AM

Apple Support solved this for me. I'm a Mac novice so I may not say this in "mac-eese".

The first sequence of steps took about 5 or so minutes and it did nothing (that I know of), but follow along anyway - it's just a handful of minutes.


First they had me open Disk Utility and run a few checks. That did nothing, but just in case, you can run these steps:


Go to Applications/Utilites and select Disk Utility. Run Verify Disk and Disk Repair (if needed). Then run Verify Permissions and Repair Permissions. This took a fair amount of time and I received some kind of ACL issue and then it said it was repaired. As a side note, it wasn't because it also happened the second time I ran Repair Permissions.


Next came the steps that worked and I'm not sure if the previous steps are required or not. From the basic "home" screen without anything running other than Finder, select the "Go" command in the top row of your screen and select "Home" from the drop-down menu. A Finder window will open that should have a little house as the icon. Once that appears, press "Command i" (command button and the letter i). This brings up an Info window for Home. In the preview section of the Info window you should see the House icon. If you don't you are not in the right place. At the bottom of the Info winow select/highlight Computer Name (me); where Computer Name is whatever you named the computer. Regardless of the name, "(me)" will be next to it. To the right on that you should see read/write. If not, change it to read/write for that row only. At the bottom right, unlock the lock (click on it and you proably need your password to unlock). At this point the lock should be unlocked and your computer name is selected/highlighted. Click on the gear wheel and select the option "apply to enclosed items". It may take a short amount of time for the computer to repair or apply the setting to your items (which should be everything). After that, everything was back to normal. This second sequence of steps takes about one minute to do.

39 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Dec 24, 2012 10:22 AM in response to thebrooklynites

Apple Support solved this for me. I'm a Mac novice so I may not say this in "mac-eese".

The first sequence of steps took about 5 or so minutes and it did nothing (that I know of), but follow along anyway - it's just a handful of minutes.


First they had me open Disk Utility and run a few checks. That did nothing, but just in case, you can run these steps:


Go to Applications/Utilites and select Disk Utility. Run Verify Disk and Disk Repair (if needed). Then run Verify Permissions and Repair Permissions. This took a fair amount of time and I received some kind of ACL issue and then it said it was repaired. As a side note, it wasn't because it also happened the second time I ran Repair Permissions.


Next came the steps that worked and I'm not sure if the previous steps are required or not. From the basic "home" screen without anything running other than Finder, select the "Go" command in the top row of your screen and select "Home" from the drop-down menu. A Finder window will open that should have a little house as the icon. Once that appears, press "Command i" (command button and the letter i). This brings up an Info window for Home. In the preview section of the Info window you should see the House icon. If you don't you are not in the right place. At the bottom of the Info winow select/highlight Computer Name (me); where Computer Name is whatever you named the computer. Regardless of the name, "(me)" will be next to it. To the right on that you should see read/write. If not, change it to read/write for that row only. At the bottom right, unlock the lock (click on it and you proably need your password to unlock). At this point the lock should be unlocked and your computer name is selected/highlighted. Click on the gear wheel and select the option "apply to enclosed items". It may take a short amount of time for the computer to repair or apply the setting to your items (which should be everything). After that, everything was back to normal. This second sequence of steps takes about one minute to do.

Jan 31, 2012 9:07 PM in response to iVmichael

Just had the same thing happen to me, starting today, after the cat walked over the keyboard--at least, that's the only thing I can think of, other than updating Motion, FCPX and Compressor. So thanks for the tip...and for anyone like me who isn't used to the Terminal or entering into it, if there's a space, you leave that space, so that my entry for the above was exactly this:


sudo chown michael .Trash

and then my password...it works.

Mar 1, 2012 12:59 AM in response to iVmichael

Michael


I used your 'sudo chown' etc to fix the deleted file into trash, on my new Lion OS, and it worked. Brilliant. Thanks very much. Now I find another glitch elsewhere. If I try to move a document or file etc onto the hard drive icon with Lion I am now asked to authenticate and have to type in my password each time for it to move on to the hard disk. I didn't have to do that with Snow Leopard. What is the answer please? Is it another set of words into the Utilities folder? If so what are they and what do I do?


Thank you.


Rutland

Mar 2, 2012 12:03 AM in response to Rutland

Not for the faint hearted but it drove me nuts not being able to manage the /Applications folder and Utilities, if you really want to take ownership then:


Select Applications and Get Info

Click the Padlock bottom right and enter the admin password

Click the + bottom left, it will open your contacts list

Select your name/normal login account

It will be added as Read Only, change that to Read & Write

Hit the little Gear icon at the bottom and select Apply to Enclosed Items

Let it work through it might take a while

Close the panel


Be warned this means you can also delete things that could be important so be careful ...


User uploaded file

Mar 2, 2012 2:13 AM in response to iVmichael

Michael


Thanks for that. Unfortunately despite carrying out your ideas to the letter. It doesn't work for me.


If I want to move any file/doc/picture to the HD it still says 'doc etc can't be moved because Mackintosh HD can't be modified' It gives me the option to authenticate or cancel. Obviously by clicking authenticate and putting in my password it allows me to put it into the HD. A pain of course. But it does work.


The other gliche I find on Lion is that if I go to the HD and bring up a doc or picture out of it, it has the name that I have given it, say' xyz', at the top of the item with 'locked' in grey letters next to it. If I then try to add or edit the item it says


'You don’t have permission to write to the folder that the file 'xyz' is in. You can duplicate this doc and edit the duplicate. Only the duplicate will include your changes.' It gives me the option to cancel or duplicate. If I click duplicate the duplicate doc appears with the same name 'xyz' with copy in black next to it. I can then amend/edit it and once saved it has 'xyz' with edit next to it. All very weird. I didn't get any of this on Snow Leopard. Is this a new feature of Lion?

Mar 2, 2012 4:29 AM in response to Rutland

It sounds to me like you don't have admin permissions on that username ? check what it shows in System Preferences/Accounts ?


It won't hurt either to run Disc Utility and Repair Permissions on the volume as things might be mixed up ...


With external drives you can Get Info on them and then check 'Ignore Ownership' which would fix things like this but that's not what's going on here.


User uploaded file

Mar 2, 2012 7:47 AM in response to iVmichael

I'm afraid nothing works to solve it. I've just tried your latest idea. Repairing, volume and I am listed as administrator. I'm the only one that uses my machine anyway. What is puzzling is that if you look at each doc (inside the computer in the info bit it, if you see what I mean) it doesn't have the locked box ticked. Yet it does say locked on the screen picture of the doc as my earlier e-mail. If you try to edit it. Anyway thanks for trying.

Apr 30, 2012 6:16 AM in response to iVmichael

Trying to simply send things to trash without having the type password every time.


Tried the Terminal command and get this:


Last login: Mon Apr 30 20:09:29 on ttys000

MacMini:~ david m$ sudo chown david m .Trash

chown: david: Invalid argument

MacMini:~ david m$ sudo chown david m .Trash

chown: david: Invalid argument

MacMini:~ david m$ sudo chown david m .Trash

chown: david: Invalid argument

MacMini:~ david m$

May 30, 2012 6:30 AM in response to Rutland

I don't have any info on this, but am having the same problem. I just got a new MBP, which is awesome. We have had Macs for years and never seen something like this that requires such a complex fix. Usually, it would be an easy Sys Prefs adjustment for rights. If anybody at Apple is reading this, PLEASE address this in the next update. It's getting annoying to authenticate every time I want to move a file to another folder.

May 30, 2012 9:56 AM in response to hmoore45

Had the same trouble on my iMac when I upgraded to Lion. Basically it wiped my name off as the Account Holder/Administrator list. Hence it didn't recognise me. Try to see if it has wiped you off. If so put yourself in again as Acount Holder/Administrator. I upgraded my wife's Macbook to Lion and it didn't affect hers. Best of luck.

Finder keeps asking my for my password every time i want to move or delete files, How do i remove this?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.