weird permissions issue

-boot to the recovery partition by holding down command+R on startup.

-at the top of the screen click on the work "utilities"

-click on termial from the drop down menu

-in the terminal window type resetpassword all lower case letters and all together like i typed it

-this opens the reset password window

-under volume select mac HD

-under user select your name

-do not type anything in the password fields as you are not resetting the password

-then at the bottom of the window click on the reset button, this will reset the home folder and ACL permissions on the user acct and should resolve any permissions errors or issues you're having. it works better than trying to verify and repair the permissions

hope this helps the issues!

You are an admin user, correct? Copy and paste the following bolded command (courtesy Linc Davis) into Terminal. This will unlock all your user files, set them to standard ownership, and change ACLs back to default. Let it run, it will take a few minutes.

sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; 2> /dev/null

custom means that at some point custom settings were chosen for the folder rather than the typical read and write options

if you are the admin on the mac you should be able to go in and change the sharing settings on anything on the mac.

So now, one question remains; where did the other everyone come from? More to the point, how does one add another everyone - can you add as many everyones that you want?

Your paranoia is understandable but there is no need to worry. Everyone is a group created by the system default. You can add users to the group using the Terminal or "Directory Utility," and group membership is calculated by the system according to users with a GUID below 12 (ie, ROOT). The default permissions for your home folder are User RW, staff R, everyone R. Write=2 and read=4 for permissions. Thus, your home folder has permissions set to 644, by default. I am attaching a screenshot of my home folder and the group 'everyone' in directory utility. See below for more useful information on permissions and ACLs explained. Everyone is a misleading term in the case of permissions and you should not be alarmed by it.

File Permissions in Mac OS X | Macinstruct

Troubleshooting permissions issues in Mac OS X - Support - Apple

The custom moniker usually means there is an ACL assigned.

Use

ls -ale /path/to/folder

To see the ACEs. The will be listed underneath the folder entry prefaced with a number and colon.

If you have the folder shared out, Sharing often sets up Access Control Lists (ACLs) on the folders, not specific per-user permissions. ACLs are listed as Custom in the Get info window.

I can't tell you who put them there, only guess. I can't verify your iCloud theory at the moment as I don't have a Mac with me.

jglaiche, I have an identical problem. How did you finally resolve yours? Thanks for any tips. Johannes

I'm having the same problem. At some point, and I suspect a previous update, I started finding I had an additional 'everyone' with a 'custom' permission at the top of the list of permissions. This effectively interferes with all files up to a certain date when I try to access them through a program like Lightroom or Photoshop. I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.1. Can I just copy and paste the command you've provided and all will be resolved. I'm no technician and have a mortal fear of causing irreparable damage. I do have a time machine backup.

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved and is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one. Post in the Sierra community.

The command should work. Since you have a backup, you can recover is necessary.

Thank you. Went ahead with the command and it worked perfectly.