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"Apply to enclosed items" always grayed out.

At some pint after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.8, "Apply to enclosed items" is always grayed out, no matter what folder I try. I have repaired the disk and permissions, verified that permissions apply, etc. User is definitely admin. I've searched Apple discussions, it seems others have had this problem but no soultions yet, other than to re-install the operating system.

Someone suggested "Batchmod" but that doesn't allow you to get inside of packages and fix their permissions, which is sometimes necessary. I know how to fix permissions through the terminal, but I want to know why this feature is suddenly broken and how to fix it for my less savvy users.

Mac Dual 2.7 G5

Posted on Nov 10, 2006 9:22 AM

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19 replies

Nov 13, 2006 10:56 AM in response to James Weisbin1

On cloer inspection it appears that this option is only grayed out on the boot disk, which has three partitions, one being the boot partition which is journaled, the other two are not journaled. The "Apply to enclosed" is grayed out on all three of those partitions, but not on any other drives or partitions.

Also the option the turn journaling off is grayed out on the boot partition.

Anyone?

Nov 13, 2006 5:30 PM in response to James Weisbin1

This doesn't directly answer your question, but I have long ago given up on the Finder - Get Info method of changing permissions. It has always been flaky and unreliable IMO. I either use Terminal or BatChmod.

To get BatChmod to adjust permissions inside of packages, use Finder -> right click on Package -> Show Package Contents. Then you can navigate to the desired subfolder with Finder. Then drag the subfolder to the BatChmod window.

Nov 16, 2006 2:58 PM in response to baltwo

I had a problem with a software package (Acrobat 8). The solution was to create a new user, also with admin priviliges, install Acrobat for that user, then it worked as that user. Then I simply copied all the old prefs and etc from the old user to the new, and deleted the old user. This seems like the cause of my problem with "apply to enclosed..." being grayed out. The new user is the admin user and therefore should have R/W access, so I still can't figure this one out.

Nov 16, 2006 4:12 PM in response to James Weisbin1

James
Then I simply copied all the old prefs and etc from the old user to the new, and deleted the old user. This seems like the cause of my problem with "apply to enclosed..." being grayed out.
You're probably right, since many of the files may belong to the old user.
The new user is the admin user and therefore should have R/W access
No necessarily. But an admin user can change ownership.

Select a folder where the "Apply to enclosed …" is greyed out, and do a "Get Info" from the File Menu (or Command-I). Under "Ownership & Permissions", what do you see? "No Access"? or your name?

Click the disclosure triangle to the left of "Ownership & Permissions" and to the right of the "Owner" you'll see a little padlock. Click on that and supply the admin password for the account you are logged in with.

Now change the Owner (and Group) to you if it isn't already, and then try the "Apply to Enclosed Items" which should now not be grey.

Nov 16, 2006 4:26 PM in response to Michael Conniff

On my Mac, I can create a brand new folder on the desktop, save a few TextEdit docs in there, and verify that everything is owned by me and is writable.

If I do a Get Info on the folder, the Apply to Enclosed Items button is still greyed out.

Furthermore, I get prompted to enter an admin username and password when I attempt to change the group. Even though I own the folder. That shouldn't happen.

But like I said in another post, I never use Get Info to change permissions anyway because I found that it rarely worked properly even when the button wasn't greyed out. I have long ago abandoned it. BatChmod is where it's at. Or Terminal.

Nov 16, 2006 5:24 PM in response to Király

If I do a Get Info on the folder, the Apply to Enclosed Items button is still greyed out.
This shouldn't happen, and doesn't on my system. (10.4.8)
I get prompted to enter an admin username and password when I attempt to change the group
Are you sure this isn't because the ownership info is locked (the padlock to the right of "Owner", not the "Locked" checkbox). My new folder has the padlock locked and both Owner and Group greyed out. But the "Apply to enclosed items …" is not greyed out.

But if I click on the "Apply …", after a "Are you sure" dialog I am asked to authenticate. This happens irrespective of whether I have unlocked the padlock or not. I agree that some of this behaviour shouldn't happen, but I'm not sure which bit(s) are wrong.

Nov 16, 2006 6:04 PM in response to Michael Conniff

This shouldn't happen, and doesn't on my system. (10.4.8)


I know it shouldn't happen, but it is happening; on my system, on the OP's system, and on several other systems as posted in other threads.

Are you sure [being prompted to authenticate as admin when
attempting to change the group] isn't because the ownership
info is locked (the padlock to the right of "Owner", not the
"Locked" checkbox).


It happens whether or not the padlocked is locked. I get asked for admin authentication even when it is unlocked. And even on files/folders that I already own. In Terminal I can chgrp any file belonging to me without being asked to authenticate as admin.

My new folder has the padlock locked and
both Owner and Group greyed out. But the "Apply to
enclosed items …" is not greyed out.


On your system it is working correctly. But on my and on others' systems it isnt. It seems to be a bug. When Apple fixes it I hope they fix the whole thing so that it works properly. Then maybe I'll consider using it again instead of Terminal or BatChmod.

Nov 16, 2006 6:32 PM in response to James Weisbin1

Have any of these volumes ever come into contact with OS X 10.4.x Server? By default, I believe Tiger Server enables Access Control Lists (ACLs) for all volumes on the system, which can often cause odd behavior when you're booted from a normal client version of Tiger.

For example, after installing Server on one of my partitions and starting up from it and playing around, after I rebooted to my normal Tiger partition the "Ignore ownership on this volume" checkbox had disappeared from the Ownership & Permissions section of the Finder's Get Info window for all volumes on my Mac (not just the boot volume, which normally doesn't have that checkbox). I also recall that some volumes showed an odd ownership and I wasn't able to modify the root level of them. Trying to use a utility like the Finder's permissions section, Batchmod, XRay, etc. to adjust the BSD-based permissions didn't work, since the volumes had ACLs enabled which were overriding the BSD permissions structure.

After rebooting into Server, I was able to use one of the included programs to turn off ACLs for all volumes and then the behavior in the client version of Tiger returned to normal.

I have no idea if this is at all related to the issue you're having, but it sounds like it could be.

I'm not sure what else would cause that button to be disabled.

Hope this helps....

Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM; 17" MacBook Pro w/ 2 GB RAM - Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Nov 17, 2006 3:32 PM in response to MarkDouma®

That's interesting; neither volume has come into contact with OS X Server.

But I have done the following:

1) Enabled ACLs on my boot volume (I enabled them so that I could do this)
2) Installed the Server Admin Tools (so that I could get to the advanced parental controls available with Workgroup Manager)

I wonder if this condition is related to either of those. Before I disable ACLs to test it out, does anyone know if my ACL entries will still be intact after re-enabling ACLs?

Nov 17, 2006 5:17 PM in response to baltwo

The Server Admin Tools and even XCode are not required to enable ACLs. Before I installed the Server Admin Tools, I enabled ACLs by entering this into Terminal:

sudo fsaclctl -p / -e

Then I used a chmod +a command to add an ACE to a folder in /Users/Shared.

It was quite some time after that that I installed the Server Admin Tools.

I'm not sure exactly when the "Apply to enclosed items box" became greyed out. Like I said I never use it and I didn't even notice it was greyed out on my Mac until I read this thread and then looked.

Nov 17, 2006 7:30 PM in response to baltwo

ACLs have the potential to be extremely useful, but just be careful - it looks like they aren't quite ready for prime time in OS X:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006102912402560

I had noticed something similar with ' rsync', but since so many problems had been reported for the new 10.4 version of ' rsync' (ie. with support for extended attributes and resource forks) that I assumed it was ' rsync' that couldn't deal with ACLs. But since ' tar' also is affected, it might be a more general problem with the interaction between ACLs and any of the new updated resource-fork aware command line tools.

Worst case - when performing an incremental back up from a source on an ACL enabled volume to one on a volume ACLs not enabled may result in the loss of every single resource fork in the destination folder. Not just a failure to preserve them on the files that differed in the incremental backup, but an active stripping of resource forks from every file already in the destination.

This could potentially be an issue if anyone is using any sort of third party software that is using ' tar' or ' rsync' or any of the other affected tools under the hood...

"Apply to enclosed items" always grayed out.

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