File Permissions. I have custom access even though I own it!

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Level 1

8 points

File Permissions. I have custom access even though I own it!

Ok so first of all let me just explain the history behind my system. I have been through approximately 4 different Macbooks with different Hard Drive Sizes causing me to store much of my iTunes library and some personal files on an external drive. Recently I settled on my Macbook pro from early 2008 for a variety of financial reasons. Thus I upgraded it with a 750Gb Hard Drive and copied everything back onto it. There were some permission erros and a mysterious _unkown in the permissions but ever since upgrading to Lion I have had a huuge problem with permissions on ALL my files!

The problem is every single one of my folders now has this:

Sharing & Permissions:

You have custom access

Nick (me) Read & Write

Staff Read Only

everyone Read Only

After playing around with it a bit I found that I can change all the permissions by applying to enclosed folders. This made matters worse as now some of the files now have TWO 'everyone' categories. And when I go to a specific file I instead find this:

Sharing & Permissions:

You have custom access

everyone Custom

Nick (me) Read & Write

Staff Read Only

everyone Read Only

When I change the new everyone to any other category, the 'Custom' dissapears and the line above changes to "You can Read & Write"

Normally I wouldn't care. But now, when I attempt to save a game, or save a Pages file (with the new autosave feature) I get issues where it says I don't have permission to edit that file. But according to the permissions I do. Until I change the new 'everyone' category the program won't allow me to save at all.

Anyone have any ideas how I can do this for my whole users folder? As of now I have yet to find a good way around it. I have tried the vartious sudo commands, to no avail. Help anyone?

Thanks,

Nick

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 8, 2011 4:26 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Poikkeus

Level 4

2,786 points

Aug 8, 2011 5:06 PM in response to nickdyville

I've had a problem not unlike yours, and while I don't have a specific answer to your question, I'm pretty sure I know what it will be.

If you have time and opportunity to use the Apple Store's Genius Bar, they have access to all sorts of commands you might not be aware of, including BIOS functions that haven't even published yet. I'd been struggling with a related issue for days, but twenty minutes at the Genius Bar solved it for me. No guarantees, but it's your best chance for a fast resolution.

Post here with the results of your question!

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Answer 2

Aug 8, 2011 9:06 PM in response to nickdyville

I see the same thing happening with the default apps in Lion. I wanted to move them into folders because I don't like having clutter off my root, so I used:

sudo chown -R [username]:admin /Applications

This changed the ownership of all the apps to admin

Then I used chmod to change permissions on all apps to read/write/execute for all users:

chmod -R 0777 /Applications

But I still have the same error that you have with:

Name Privilege

everyone Custom

Me R & W

admin R & W

everyone R & W

I thought for sure I could wipe out that Custom Everyone with a terminal command, but I'm clearly a n00b since I can't get this right. What does work is pulling up file info and changing manually for each app, but that's lame. Once it's changed manually, then the extra 'everyone' disappears.

I'm interested if someone else can figure it out.

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Answer 3

nickdyville Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 15, 2011 12:34 PM in response to razmanugget

I followed a couple of those steps and thats exactly what happened... Poikkeus, I will take it today to an authorized repair guy since I'm doigna student exchange out the country right now. This problem is causing a series of errors with my applications because of tthis permissions things.

I will let you know about it when I get back!

Cheers,

Nick

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Answer 4

nickdyville Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 16, 2011 2:33 PM in response to nickdyville

Hey,

Well I found a temporary fix and I understood a bit the reason for the problem but I don't believe this is the 'real' fix. I did some research and found a post that was similar to this one (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3220976?answerId=15946476022#15946476022). The posts there but me on the right track towards the origin of the problem. The ACL Permissions which take precedence to the tradicional permissions. The new 'everyone' is the ACL permissions and as long as it is custom nothing can be done.

The solution I found was to download a handy little utility calld ACL Fix (http://www.xnation.net/) which effectively fixes the ACL precedence over normal permissions. I applied it to my home folder and lots of my things went back to working as it used to!

Thank God,

But the best bet is still most likely to take it to an apple store (as I will do when I get back to the states)

Cheers,

Good Luck to everyone,

Nick

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Answer 5

Crispian

Level 1

5 points

Dec 21, 2011 2:02 AM in response to nickdyville

I have exactly this with 10.7.2.

I have tried the little ACL app but no changes for me. Apple Apple Apple please address this.

I have been reffered up to apple engineers after a good few hours on the phone to them, but still no help.

If anyone has the patients to spell out the terminal solution to me that would be good. If i copy and paste it I just get a 'no such volume' response. Im sure I just need someone to explain replacing my info into the terminal script but I dont want to total my computer guessing.

Still awaiting solution....

Many thanks

Crispian

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Answer 6

Feb 17, 2012 1:06 AM in response to nickdyville

This happens frequently on my iMac - moved to Apple 18 months ago after many years with Microsoft. Unbelievable amount of problems since.

I am logged on as admin - so have access to everything - right. Wrong! In any file info window I don't even show as an option. I try to add myself - the admin, mind. And I am told I don't have permissions to do so!

I cannot beleive how bad Apple's operating system is - first Leopard, now Lion. Awful.

So I can see my files on y NAS but can't move or change them. Now before anyone says it's a permissions problem on the NAS - this is all working correctly - on Windows machine there is no problem whatsoever!.

How on Earth can I logon with an admin account and then find it is not included in any permissions dialogue?

At a loss, yet again.

A damned disgrace - more hours to be wasted trying to get a simple thing to work!

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Answer 7

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Feb 17, 2012 8:27 AM in response to wmike1503

I see your permission misunderstanding frequently as well - an administrative user does not have more permissions than any other user, just the ability to temporarily raise their access. Since your reply doesn't address the original poster's problem, you should start a separate topic with details about your particular situation.

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Answer 8

Feb 17, 2012 10:51 AM in response to nickdyville

I tried various things (Trash, chmod, etc.). I find that I get rid of the double entries for Everyone by copying the files to a FAT thumb drive, deleting the originals (after a backup) and then restoring the files from the thumb drive.

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Answer 9

Feb 17, 2012 11:03 AM in response to nickdyville

For Future Info:

This would take care of Home Folder permissions: choose tab for your OS:

http://www.fixkb.com/2011/08/reset-home-folder-permissions.html

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Answer 10

Apr 4, 2012 7:51 PM in response to Crispian

Hopefully you already found a solution but this is what worked for me: Run the ACL app on the home folder, and then reboot into the recovery partition. Open Utilities > Terminal and type resetpassword. This opens the password reset utility, at the bottom of which is a button to repair home folder permissions (you have to choose a harddrive and a user above). The combination of both steps seems to have fixed all my issues with apps not working right etc.

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Answer 11

Oct 10, 2012 12:38 AM in response to nickdyville

You saved my life just before Im planning to kill some Apple guy.

Thanks forever brother.

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