I do not have permissions to trash files – tried everything

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Level 1

21 points

I do not have permissions to trash files – tried everything

When I try to delete a .jpg in Adobe Bridge CS4 or in Finder, the former says I do not have permissions, the latter requires me to enter the admin password. In fact, trying to delete any file in Finder requires the admin password.

This started happening in Snow Leopard, and continues following my upgrade to Lion. Extremely annoying!

Tried and failed 1

Cmd-I (Get info) on my home drive and resetting permissions.

Tried and failed 2

Using Terminal whilst logged in to reset permissions over Trash, namely:

sudo chown your_user_name .Trash

Tried and failed 3

Turn on the Mac whilst holding down cmd + R. You can let go once you see a spinning dial. You will then see the ”Mac OS X Utilities” screen.
On the top menu, click Utilities, then click Terminal.
Type resetpassword and press Enter.
Click on your main hard drive.
In the dropdown box under “Select the user account” make sure to select your username.
Underneath where it says “Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs”, click the Reset button.

Tried and failed 4

Upgrading to Lion.

Tried and failed 5

Going to make a cup of tea.

Tried and failed 6

Really hoping really hard.

Any ideas? I've invested two hours on this support forum so far, but can find nothing else to try.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Oct 9, 2011 1:20 PM

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Answer 1

psheldrake Author

Level 1

21 points

Oct 11, 2011 2:15 AM in response to jsd2

Hi jsd2,

Thanks v much for the clear guidance and screenshot of BatChmod. Much appreciated.

So I downloaded BatChmod and did exactly as you proposed... except the "Apply to enclosed folders and files" tickbox was greyed out. I couldn't tick it. I clicked Apply and entered the Admin password to confirm.

I then restarted with cmd+R and did steps 1-6 above resetting home directory permissions and ACLs.

I rebooted. No change. Still can't delete files without entering admin password every time.

I went back to BatChmod and did the same thing again. This time the tickbox for "Apply to enclosed folders and files" was not greyed out, so I could tick it. I clicked Apply and entered the Admin password to confirm.

But my problem remains unfixed :-(

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Answer 2

psheldrake Author

Level 1

21 points

Oct 11, 2011 2:27 AM in response to jsd2

Hello again.

It occurred to me that you said do the cmd+R process after having run the BatChmod process fully, not after having run it without being able to tick the greyed out box in question.

So without much hope, I restarted with cmd+R and did steps 1-6 above again and restarted. And my problem is gone. You've fixed it!

(Now then, just to be rigorous about this documentation, I did do one other thing too for the first time this reboot. I closed Adobe Bridge beforehand. I don't think that's got anything to do with it, but just in case, it's logged here.)

Thanks everyone. You're all stars :-)

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Answer 3

jsd2

Level 5

6,245 points

Oct 11, 2011 3:42 AM in response to psheldrake

Whew! I don't know why that BatChmod checkbox was grayed out the first time, but I'm glad that sequence finally worked!

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Answer 4

Oct 11, 2011 5:27 PM in response to psheldrake

if you are going to reinstall lion i will suggest to do a clean install (format first the install). doing a clean install will make everything get erased, and when reinstalling lion will make everything get to normal situation. so with a clean install you will not get any problem. install snow leopard the what ever you do install lion. then get everything back as you have it right now...

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