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stylr Author

Level 3

630 points

Lion Fetching Permissions Problem???

I am am having an issue where my time machine backups have failed and now I cannot access an external hard drive. I cannot copy anything to it. It returns a -50 error code and says it has users and permission issues. I have repaired the drive, fix permissions on my main drive and run every utility I can think of.

In the Get Info box under users it says one of them is "fetching..." yet it neveres finds/fetches the proper user or admin or staff or whatever it is looking for.

I found this: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20121641-263/file-group-permissions-constan tly-displaying-fetching..-in-os-x/

and it explains my issue. I am a bit hesitant to use terminal as I am wary of screwing something up. I am also a bit confused as the what to replace in the commands with my own usernames and so forth.

Can anyone help me to fix this? I would be forever in your debt. Thank you in advnace.

2 mbp's, mac mini, ipods, iphone 30, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 31, 2012 3:39 PM

Top-ranking reply

Glenn Leblanc

Level 6

12,527 points

Posted on Jan 31, 2012 4:07 PM

Follow the instruction to reset the permissions in Lion. Do it exactly like it says and you will not have a problem.

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.
Press cmd + Q to quit the Reset Password application.
Press cmd + Q again to quit the Terminal.
Press cmd + Q one more time and click Restart.
Click Mac OS X Utilities in the top left of the screen and click the Restart button.

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16 replies

Feb 1, 2012 8:52 AM in response to stylr

Good to see at least you can access it now. Verify that TM will make the incrimental backups OK. That should only take a few minitues if it works correctly.

Other threads to read (and probably could search discussions to find many more) :

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3280816

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3443297?answerId=17183214022#17183214022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3478882?answerId=16693554022#16693554022

I hadn't seen a fix to the external drive issue. But, your user folder should be OK with the permissions reset. No problems, leave it alone unless you get a definite answer.

Good Luck & You're Welcome

Lion Fetching Permissions Problem???