Automator won't allow copying of files to external HD

Question

Level 1

41 points

Automator won't allow copying of files to external HD

I am a web developer and recently created a new Automator process that would copy all the files from my Applications/MAMP/htdocs directory on my Mac to my external hard drive once a day at 1am. it consists of two steps "Get specified Finder Items" where I select the above directory, and "Copy Finder Items" where I specify the directory on the external hard drive. Pretty simple.

However, when I run the process it stops immediately with the error "You don't have permission to save the file "WebSiteBackups" in the folder "External File Storage".

I've gone into Finder and set both directories' permission parameters to "Read and Write" for all items, and this didn't correct the issue.

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to why this might not be working properly?

Thanks!

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Dec 28, 2014 10:36 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,566 points

Dec 28, 2014 11:10 AM in response to korkyk

Just a guess, but I think it is running as an Automator user and not your user. It may not have permissions to do the write. I'm not at a Mac to check, so I'm not sure.

is the drive set to ignore owner in get info. If not, do you nees permissions on the drive?

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Answer 2

korkyk Author

Level 1

41 points

Dec 31, 2014 2:22 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for your response.

I went to Get Info on my External Drive and under Sharing & Permissions, all the Named persons, Me, Staff and everyone are set to Read and Write. Underneath that, "Ignore Ownership on this volume" is checked.

I then went to add "Automator" but that isn't a valid user. However I did note that Admin wasn't on the list. So I am adding that to the list of users with read & write capability and see what happens.

I am wondering if this is a bug in Yosemite?

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Answer 3

korkyk Author

Level 1

41 points

Dec 31, 2014 2:41 PM in response to korkyk

Automator is an Admin function, so giving Admin the permissions to read and write the external drive solved the problem. The Ignore Ownership option seems to have no effect on anything here.

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