YaLinguist
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Q: Strange permissions problem with Mail.app

When I try to open Mail.app, I get a message:


"Mail can’t open because you don’t have the necessary permissions to change the folder where it saves information."


I recently set up a new MacMini (Mountain Lion 10.8.2). It has an internal 256 Gb SSD, and I added an internal HP from OtherWorld. I want the system stuff to be on the SSD, and User files on the HD. After migrating everything from another computer, I copied (with /bin/cp -Rp) the /Users directory to /Volumes/HD/Users, moved /Users to /Users_orig, and then made a symbolic link from /Volumes/HD/Users to /Users.


When I log in, all of my stuff seems to be found, and located on as it should be in /Volumes/HD/Users/sra/. Pretty much everything works as it should except Mail, which claims the permissions on its directory are not as they should be:


"Mail stores information in /HD/Users/sra/Library/Mail. If this folder is on your computer, use the Get Info window in the Finder to change your permissions for this folder to “Read & Write.” If this folder is located on a network server, contact the server administrator. After your permissions are changed, open Mail again."


I have checked this directory both with "Get Info" in the finder and with ls in Terminal, and everything looks just the same as it does on another machine where Mail works fine (the one I migrated from).

 

Additional info: 1) there does not seem to be any preferences file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.  Probably this is because I have not yet been able to open Mail.app on this system.

2) When my account ("sra") was first created, it was assigned userid 501.  That is the userid that owns the directories left behind in /User_orig.  The userid on the system from which I transferred stuff (indicating that I wanted to replace the "sra" account originally created) was 504, and that's the userid that shows up for all of the stuff in my newly created user directory on the HD.

 

I will of course be happy to supply any other information that might help sort this out.


What is going on here, and how can I satisfy Mail.app?


Many Thanks in advance for any help.


--


Steve Anderson

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Nov 5, 2012 2:05 PM

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Q: Strange permissions problem with Mail.app

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  • Helpful answers

  • by YaLinguist,

    YaLinguist YaLinguist Nov 6, 2012 11:06 AM in response to YaLinguist
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2012 11:06 AM in response to YaLinguist

    I keep fiddling with the permissions (including ACL) on ~/Library/Mail and its included directories -- as far as I can tell, they are identical with the ones on the corresponding directory on the machine from which I originally migrated this user account. Can someone suggest something else I can do, or somewhere else to look? Is it just impossible to have my user directory on a different volume from the system?  How else can I accomplish what I tried to do as described above?

     

    Thanks for any help...

     

    --

     

    Steve Anderson

  • by YaLinguist,

    YaLinguist YaLinguist Nov 6, 2012 12:00 PM in response to YaLinguist
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2012 12:00 PM in response to YaLinguist

    OK, I finally got it fixed, though I'm not sure what was the effective remedy.  After carefully duplicating all of the permissions stuff on the Mail folder and its children, I went to System Preferences and set (via "advanced options") my home folder to be /Volumes/HD/Users/sra/, instead of relying on the symbolic link.  I then restarted the machine, and now Mail.app works.

     

    I suspect that it was the restart that was important, since the Netinfo database doesn't get updated otherwise, and that was probably what was responsible for the problem.  But I don't really know...

     

    --

     

    Steve Anderson

  • by rsleonard820,

    rsleonard820 rsleonard820 May 21, 2016 10:18 PM in response to YaLinguist
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 21, 2016 10:18 PM in response to YaLinguist

    Having similar issue...could you please put in "regular" language how you fixed this?  I did use the Users&Groups sys pref (advanced options) to point to my data drive (like you i have an ssd and a much bigger data drive, where my user file is located). My issue occurred after an upgrade where I wiped the SSD, and did a clean install. Few other problems exist. But obviously mail is a big one!