Mavericks, very clean install to fix permissions?

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Level 1

8 points

Mavericks, very clean install to fix permissions?

Ever since I got my iMac three years ago, my permissions have been wibbly. I'm pretty sure it's my fault for messing with the Home folder when I shouldn't have when I got the computer. So things have mostly worked since then, but permissions problems crop up more and more frequently in Mountain Lion. And I don't mean just Disk Utility finding errors, I mean actual problems. (One software license got messed up enough that the company told me they can't help me until my OS is fixed, my encryption and backups are not working properly anymore etc.) It's time to get this mess fixed, and I figure I'll go ahead and upgrade to Mavericks from 10.8.5 while I'm at it.

Clearly, migration is out. I've been assuming the best/only thing I can do is wipe my machine (after making clones and backups), install all software fresh, transfer Documents manually, restore the Aperture library from a vault, and figure out how to reinstate iTunes. Since my solid state drive is rather small, I'll also recover some space by getting rid of all the old cruft.

1. Am I right that wiping the machine is the best thing to do? I have all the app's licenses, and am ready to bite the bullet if this is the way to go.

2. Will permissions problems transfer over if I copy cloned Documents to the new OS? I have been assuming no problem with non-applications. I'd like to transfer select application preferences, also, so same question.

3. How to deal with email? My gmail and non-gmail accounts are IMAP, so I think I can enter the account logins and everything will download fresh (with the caveat about gmail and Mavericks not playing nice, and of course having backups in place).

Any advice on the best way to make this happen and get it behind me?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

Posted on Oct 28, 2014 8:33 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Oct 29, 2014 11:23 AM in response to Chez Buttons

Try this first.

Permissions – Reset Home Folder (includes 10.6.8)

Permission Issues - Troubleshooting

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), hit return, 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.

Repair User Permissions

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Answer 2

Chez Buttons Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 29, 2014 11:42 AM in response to Eric Root

I tried this (Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs) a few weeks ago when my backup problems started. This procedure didn't solve my backup problems, so I gave up on solving them until I upgrade. (As another test afterward, I tried to run the software I mentioned above with the corrupted license permissions. No change; I can run the software from a Admin account, but not from my personal account on this machine - it claims my license is invalid, and the mfr says that is because my permissions are messed up.)

So, is it time to get some Red Bull and start the wipe?

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