Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs not working?

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Level 1

39 points

Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs not working?

I’ve got a MBP that is running 10.9.2. I have many folders where I have included other users on the laptop with R&W privileges in the Sharing & Permissions section of the Get Info window. I’d like to restore my entire Home directory back to default permissions to remove those names.

When I boot to the Recovery disk and get into the Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs and choose my account and then click Reset the spinning wheel only shows for a very short time…less than a second. Also, the “Done” button remains dim and is not clickable.

I've repeated this a few times and have waited as long as two hours with the same result. When I get out of this and boot back to normal and look in my folders the user names are still in the Sharing & Permissions and nothing looks different, so I’m thinking the Reset Home Folder Permissions didn’t work.

Am I missing something? Are there other steps I should be doing?

Posted on Apr 30, 2014 9:10 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Apr 30, 2014 10:06 PM in response to plcmms

Triple-click anywhere in the following line on this page to select it:

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

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

The command may take a few minutes to run, or perhaps longer if you have literally millions of files in your home folder. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.

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Answer 2

plcmms Author

Level 1

39 points

May 1, 2014 6:42 AM in response to Linc Davis

I've seen where you've helped many,many, prople on this forum, Linc, so I really appreciate your reply.

I have a couple of questions, though, before I perform this.

What is this command doing, and what does a browser have to do with it since I'm using Terminal to enter the command?

Why isn't Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs working for me?

Thanks again for the help.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

May 1, 2014 9:15 AM in response to plcmms

1. The procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default.

2. You're copying a shell command from a browser window to the Terminal window. Don't try to type the command.

3. It sometimes doesn't work. I don't think it works with locked files. Otherwise, I don't know why.

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Answer 4

plcmms Author

Level 1

39 points

May 1, 2014 10:31 AM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks, Linc!! It worked!!

So, I'm using this command because Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs doesn't work for me. Bummer. I'm going to have to remember this command.

I also use Safari, and had no problem entering the command in Terminal. When it asked for my Password I entered my log in password, as instructed, but it just gave me another line asking for my Password. Then I remembered reading one of your posts that said if the account was a standard account it would have to be elevated to admin. So I did that. Then it worked. Took about 15 minutes.

You said "The procedure will unlock all your user files". I didn't know my files were locked so I wonder what you mean by that? And did they get locked back after all of this?

Thanks again, Linc!

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

May 1, 2014 10:45 AM in response to plcmms

I'm going to have to remember this command.

Unless you're doing something unusual, you shouldn't need to run the command more than once. Even if you do, resetting permissions in Recovery mode should almost always work. The drawback is that you have to reboot twice.

I didn't know my files were locked so I wonder what you mean by that? And did they get locked back after all of this?

By "locked," I mean the equivalent of checking the Locked box in a Finder Info window. The file becomes unmodifiable until the box is unchecked. I don't know whether any of your files were locked, or why they were if so, or whether they will get locked again. They're not locked now.

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Answer 6

plcmms Author

Level 1

39 points

May 1, 2014 11:46 AM in response to Linc Davis

Sure wish you were sitting next to me 'cause I have a couple of thousand more questions to ask since I don't know enough about this to keep from being dangerous. But I do have one more, please.

I've read that the part in your command "chmod -R -N ~" removes all ACLs from the home directory. Is that a good thing? Doesn't sound like it, so I'm wondering why it's necessary.

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