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Put a file in the trash... "finder wants to make changes. please enter your password to allow this" then it deletes the file without putting it into the trash

As of this afternoon, whenever I put something in the trash a message pops up saying "finder wants to make changes. please enter your password to allow this" then it deletes the file without putting it into the trash.


How do I put the behavior back to the way it used to be (I have no idea what changed this, by the way).


I simply want to put something into the trash with no password required - and then empty it when I want to empty it.


One more thing, I did a repair permissions on the entire disk from disk utility - and made sure that I have full ownership/permission for all files that I normally access i.e. documents folder, desktop etc.


Also, it is not just files, i can create a new folder with nothing in it on the desktop (and yes i am the owner) and it still happens


Am a bit stuck as to a solution.

Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Sep 13, 2011 12:13 PM

Reply
16 replies

Jan 8, 2012 2:43 PM in response to bejohnson

Hello


I have just noticed today that when I try and move a file to the trash can I get the message:


Finder wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this


We do not have a password to do this and it was working fine before

The terminal command sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash does not work and gives a permission denied result


MyMac:~ user$ ls -als (where user is the username - changed for this post)

total 40

0 drwxr-xr-x+ 18 user staff 612 7 Jan 00:05 .

0 drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 29 Oct 18:04 ..

0 -rw------- 1 user staff 3 29 Oct 17:21 .CFUserTextEncoding

32 -rw-r--r--@ 1 user staff 15364 8 Jan 21:43 .DS_Store

0 drwx------ 12 root staff 408 8 Jan 21:43 .Trash

0 -rw------- 1 user staff 0 7 Nov 23:19 .Xauthority

0 drwxr-xr-x@ 6 user staff 204 4 Jan 15:45 .aladin

8 -rw------- 1 user staff 256 8 Jan 21:44 .bash_history

0 drwx------ 3 user staff 102 31 Oct 22:47 .cups

0 drwxr-xr-x 5 user staff 170 7 Nov 23:18 .fontconfig

0 drwx------+ 4 user staff 136 22 Dec 13:33 Desktop

0 drwx------+ 24 user staff 816 8 Jan 21:43 Documents

0 drwx------+ 10 user staff 340 8 Jan 20:43 Downloads

0 drwx------@ 43 user staff 1462 8 Nov 17:14 Library

0 drwx------+ 3 user staff 102 29 Oct 17:21 Movies

0 drwx------+ 5 user staff 170 1 Nov 22:19 Music

0 drwx------+ 46 user staff 1564 8 Jan 21:29 Pictures

0 drwxr-xr-x+ 6 user staff 204 8 Jan 21:04 Public


I did a quick check of the permissions and .Trash is assigned to the root and not the user.


Can still delete files dropping them on the trash can, but they totally disappear and cannot be seen to be eptied later or restored as required.


Any ideas how to sort this or what the problem/cause is? On Mac OS X 10.7.2

Jan 9, 2012 6:45 AM in response to Barney-15E

Hello


Thanks for the info. Will test when we are home. My one query here is that we do not have a password set for the user account, so when requested for a password is it correct to just hit return ?


Likewise, I do not believe we were given an admin password when we purchased the machine, but I think they setup the two accounts on the machine to have admin rights. So it is pretty odd that the trash bin all of a sudden is assigned to the root and not the user! Is this an issue with the ugrade from 10.7.1 to 10.7.2 ?


I have googled this and it does seem to be an issue at various times!


We are still new users of the iMac so it is a bit of a learning exercise.


Thanks for the guidance: will let you know if the problem is fixed from your suggestion.

Jan 9, 2012 5:57 PM in response to ukquilter

You can't use sudo without a password set for the user. That's why it is failing for you.

If there is no password set, you should be able to set it in the User's & Groups System Preferences.


I don't really know the history of the problem, but have heard it happen with the upgrade.


If you don't want to set a password for the accounts, we may be able to change it in the Finder.

I do not believe we were given an admin password when we purchased the machine, but I think they setup the two accounts on the machine to have admin rights.

That kind of scares me. Who set up the computer for you? Can you trust them explicitly with every bit of personal and financial information you store on your computer?


If you purchased this Mac from someone you don't know, you have no idea what they installed on the computer before they sold it to you. It could have something skimming all your personal information. Odds are probably low that they did that, but you will never know.

Jan 9, 2012 11:13 PM in response to Barney-15E

Hello


No problems with security as this was a brand new machine and the store just set up 2 user accounts and a partition for Windows. Both user accounts have admin priviliges.


It is clear there is no password set on the user account since when I go to drop something in the trash the box comes up asking for the password and all I do is click ok and not type anything. I think the store left it like that so we could set our own.


We do have AppleCare so can see what they say. But I guess what I could look at is setting a password and then trying the sudo command again.


As it is we just use one account rather than keep logging in and out of them.


..... well leading on from that just set a password on the account and sudo chown user ~/.Trash worked - thanks 🙂


I guess the next question is why it would change all of a sudden!

Aug 16, 2013 9:25 AM in response to bejohnson

This starting happening on my Mac Pro after a 10.8.4 Mountain Lion update. The terminal command suggested in post 2 worked great so thanks.


Strangely, this started in 10.8.4, which is an update I had to download from apple.com versus the App Store. The App Store update caused a grey screen lockup each time I tried it. I ended up having to download and install manually. Then the password requirement appeared for trashing items.


Thanks again for the solution

Put a file in the trash... "finder wants to make changes. please enter your password to allow this" then it deletes the file without putting it into the trash

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