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Incorrect Permissions on Applications Folder

Computer: 11-inch Mid-2011 MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2


Problem: Permissions on the /Applications folder are incorrect. When I double-click on the Applications folder in the finder (either directly, or from the Sidebar) the folder will not open. However, I CAN access the Applications folder using the "Go" Menu or the CMD+SHIFT+A shortcut.


How I got here:


My MBA would not boot and I had to restore from a backup. I first reinstalled the OS, created a new admin account, then restored my user accounts from my Time Machine Backup. At this point everything seems to be in working order with the exception of the odd Applications folder behavior.


Notice in image below, the Applications Folder is slightly transparent.


User uploaded file


Permissions for the /Applications are below. The permission outlined in RED is the only permission that CAN be deleted. For all others, the "-" is greyed out.

User uploaded file

Changing the permissions in the Get info window does not help. Repairing permissions in disk utility did not help. I have also tried the following Unix commands without success.


sudo chown root:admin /Applications

sudo chmod 775 /Applications


Output from ls -l gives the following results:


drwxrwxr-x+ 91 root admin 3094 Oct 29 00:14 Applications


Any help is greatly appreciated.

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 1.8 GHz Core i7

Posted on Oct 30, 2012 9:38 AM

Reply
31 replies

Nov 29, 2017 3:47 AM in response to F3lx

In Mac OS Sierra, this prompts XCode developer tool to download and install (if you don't have it installed already). Since I accidentally read about XCode prior to executing this command, I OK'd it. After that, miraculously, the folder becomes accessible again, though it chose a different creation date than the one I had entered. In my case it wasn't a system folder I was having issues with.

Oct 31, 2012 3:59 PM in response to ATILANO

You might try unlocking the window and attempt to delete the custom users. Be sure to back up your system before attempting anything.

Highlight the first one and see if you can hit the minus sign to delete it. The system user should be the owner. if you highlight it and click on the triangle at the bottom, it should have "make system the owner" available is it already isn't. If the system user with the Custom priviledges is the owner, you will have to change that first before you can delete it.


You might also try resetting user permissions and see if that helps. This should be the same for ML:

Repairing User Permissions in OS X Lion

You’ll need to reboot to perform this, and then use the same resetpassword utility that is used to change passwords in Lion, but instead choosing a hidden option.

When you use the Disk Utility app and Repair Permissions — it doesn’t actually repair the permission settings on folders and files in your Home folder where your documents and personal applications reside.

In Lion, there is an additional Repair Permissions application utility hidden away. This tool is located inside boot Repair Utilities. Here’s how to access it.

  1. Restart Lion and hold down the Command and R keys.
  2. You will boot into the Repair Utilities screen. On top, in the Menu Bar click the Utilities item then select Terminal.
  3. In the Terminal window, type resetpassword and hit Return.
  4. The Password reset utility launches, but you’re not going to reset the password. Instead, click on the icon for your Mac’s hard drive at the top. From the drop-down below it, select the user account where you are having issues.
  5. At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.

The reset process takes a couple of minutes. When it’s done, quit the programs you’ve opened and restart your Mac. Notice that ‘Spotlight’ starts re-indexing immediately.

Oct 31, 2012 4:21 PM in response to ATILANO

It's greyed out because the Custom already is probably the owner. Try highlighting the second system with Read & Write and see if you can make that the owner. The you should be able to highlight the first and the "-" sign should be active to delete it.


You might pull a get info on the main drive itself and see what priviledges is listed there.


Note: Just thouhgt about this:

If you have file vault enabled or some other type disk encryption enabled, then I don't know what to tell you.

Incorrect Permissions on Applications Folder

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