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User profile for user: paimai
paimai Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Time Machine configured Mac always requires password

I have a new MacBook air that I set up using Time Machine – fast and simple according to the blurb BUT now every time I want to open or move a file, I have to put my password in. Also, when moving folders, Finder copies them.

The only solution seems to be to change permissions individually for each file, but I have about 5,000... Any ideas?

I've already repaired permissions and updated permissions on master folders.

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iTunes 11.01

Posted on Mar 19, 2013 7:50 AM

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7 replies
User profile for user: Eric Root
Eric Root
User level: Level 10
684,015 points

Mar 19, 2013 2:22 PM in response to paimai

You may need to rebuild permissions on your user account. To do this,boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type: 'resetpassword' (without the 's) and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/

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User profile for user: paimai
paimai Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Apr 3, 2013 12:02 PM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric,

That doesn't help either.


It seems you can only avoid this permissions problem if you give the new Mac exactly the same user name, password etc as on the old Mac before configuring it with Time Machine.


Using a 3rd party utility program to disc clone would have avoided this MASSIVE problem, but I thought, who should know Apple better than Apple?


Unfortunately, I've been travelling the last few months and had no access to my old Mac, so in the meantime, I'Ve manually been changing file permissions – so far about 2,000 files.


It would help if Apple actually bothered to tell their customers that...


Anyway, thanks for your help. In the meantime, I'm steering clear of Time Machine 😉

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Time Machine configured Mac always requires password

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