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When ever I copy some files or create a file in my external USB drive which is a FAT32 one. file permissions are not preserved. All files/folders has 777 are permission. Is this how it work in mac or am I missing something?
MacBookPro5,3, Mac OS X (10.6.5)
Can you explain a bit more please? What do you mean exactly "777 are permission" ??
Jithin wrote:
When ever I copy some files or create a file in my external USB drive which is a FAT32 one. file permissions are not preserved.
From <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3764>:
"The MS-DOS (FAT32) file system format does not support permissions, file owners, and groups. Such permissions are synthesized on Mac OS X with some default permissions. Because of this all files will have the same permissions […]"
So it's not "how it work in mac", but it's a limitation of the FAT32 file system.
LexSchellings wrote:
What do you mean exactly "777 are permission" ??
He means rwx for all. See
Thanks fane_j for the explanation. Also I have another question. If I use exFat does this handle permissions properly? Can you point me to any documentions regarding this?
Jithin wrote:
If I use exFat does this handle permissions properly? Can you point me to any documentions regarding this?
Sorry, I don't know. There's nothing in the Apple support KB that I can find. ExFAT supports ACLs, but whether this is implemented or not, I've no idea. My expectation is that the answer is no. They were not implemented in Vista, so I should be very surprised if they are implemented either in SL or Lion.
Usb drive with fat32 file system not preserving file permissions
