RossM
Level 1 (5 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Lost access to user home folder

Hi. I seem to have lost access permissions to my own home folder in OSX El Capitan.

If click on my user folder under favourites then nothing appears.

If navigate to Computer / Users / ... then I can see my user but it is shaded pale grey and no access is possible.

Tried disk repair. No other seeming issues.

My user has administrator access.

I am still able to use apps - Mail, Photos, iTunes - that access files that are located under my user home folder.

 

Ideas on how to access home folder in Finder?

OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 25, 2016 8:53 PM

by Luis Sequeira1,Solvedanswer
Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1
Level 6 (12,709 points)
Mac OS X
A:

 

Oddly, I can access my home folder via forklift app but not via finder.

As a test then I have deleted forklift (in case issue) but no impact on finder. And successfully tested forklift + finder access on a different mac.

 

This suggests to me that you don't have a problem with your home folder, but a Finder problem.

You may try deleting Finder preferences.

Paste the following line in the Terminal and press enter:

 

  rm /Users/ross/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist; killall Finder

Posted on Jun 19, 2016 1:07 PM

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RossM

Q: Lost access to user home folder

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  • Helpful answers

  • by norm123,

    norm123 norm123 Apr 27, 2016 7:54 AM in response to RossM
    Community Specialists
    Apr 27, 2016 7:54 AM in response to RossM

    Hey RossM,

     I understand that you are having an issue with accessing your files and folders in your user folder. Let's see if we can get access to it. 

    I would start with looking at the permissions of your Home Folder. If they are incorrect, you would need to ensure that you are the owner. Take a look at the steps outlined below to take care of that. 

    OS X El Capitan: If you don’t have the permissions to open a file or folder
    https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22196

    Take it easy

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Apr 27, 2016 5:30 PM in response to RossM
    Level 9 (74,172 points)
    iTunes
    Apr 27, 2016 5:30 PM in response to RossM

    User File Ownership - Reset   see post by Linc Davis

     

    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

  • by RossM,

    RossM RossM Apr 28, 2016 10:42 PM in response to norm123
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 28, 2016 10:42 PM in response to norm123

    norm123, thank you for the advice. i have executed your suggestion but it did not seem to make any difference.

  • by RossM,

    RossM RossM Apr 28, 2016 10:43 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 28, 2016 10:43 PM in response to Eric Root

    eric root, thank you also for the advice. i have executed your suggestion but it did not seem to make any difference.

  • by norm123,

    norm123 norm123 Apr 29, 2016 6:11 AM in response to RossM
    Community Specialists
    Apr 29, 2016 6:11 AM in response to RossM

    Hi RossM,

    One other thing you can try is to reinstall OS X. That too can also fix issue with permission which is what this sounds like. Take a look at the next article below to go over how to do that if you have not done that before. 

    Reinstall OS X How to reinstall OS X on your Mac
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

    Now if it is still having issues, then the next best thing would be to contact Apple Support. They would be able to see more clearly what the issue can be. To contact them or set up a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple Retails store, use the next link below. 

    Contact Apple Support
    https://www.apple.com/support/contact/

    Have a good day

  • by Luis Sequeira1,Helpful

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jun 19, 2016 1:08 PM in response to norm123
    Level 6 (12,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 19, 2016 1:08 PM in response to norm123

    In the end, reinstalling the OS may be the way to go, but before taking such drastic measures it is better to try and understand how mangled permissions may be.

     

    If you can, select your home folder in the Finder and press Command-I. Post a screenshot, especially the part about Sharing and Permissions. Mine looks like this:

     

    Screenshot 2016-04-29 at 15.00.45.PNG

     

    You probably have "No access".

  • by RossM,

    RossM RossM Apr 29, 2016 6:14 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 29, 2016 6:14 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    thanks. attached screenshot. read/write for my own folder but some seeming oddities? i did not create an 'admin' or 'system' user. why two everyone?

    Untitled.jpg

  • by RossM,

    RossM RossM Jun 17, 2016 9:33 PM in response to RossM
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 17, 2016 9:33 PM in response to RossM

    Luis/all, I thought check if any further ideas after screenshot of folder permissions. I have tried edit admin to Read & Write, but that did not make impact.

    Otherwise I may have to implement a clean install of OSX El Capitan. This would be time consuming so trying to avoid.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jun 18, 2016 3:12 AM in response to RossM
    Level 6 (12,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 18, 2016 3:12 AM in response to RossM

    In the end, reinstalling the system may be the way to go, as it seems your system is a bit messed up.

    But before you do that, you may try a few commands in the Terminal and see if helps.

     

    1) Open the Terminal (you may locate it in /Applications/Utilities, or, easier, press command-space for the Spotlight search and stat typing the word terminal - maybe just "te" or "ter" (without the quotes) is enough)

     

    2) Try and reset ownership of everything in your home directory to you. Copy the following line, paste into the terminal and press enter. You will be asked for your password. As you type it, nothing will be displayed (that is normal). Press enter to execute.

     

      sudo chown -R ross /Users/ross

     

    3) Again, copy and paste the following line (this time you do not need to enter a password) and press enter:

     

      chmod -R u=rwx /Users/ross

  • by RossM,

    RossM RossM Jun 18, 2016 9:43 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 18, 2016 9:43 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Thanks Luis, I appreciate the ideas.

    Alas did not resolve issue.

     

    Oddly, I can access my home folder via forklift app but not via finder.

    As a test then I have deleted forklift (in case issue) but no impact on finder. And successfully tested forklift + finder access on a different mac.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,Solvedanswer

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jun 19, 2016 1:07 PM in response to RossM
    Level 6 (12,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 19, 2016 1:07 PM in response to RossM

     

    Oddly, I can access my home folder via forklift app but not via finder.

    As a test then I have deleted forklift (in case issue) but no impact on finder. And successfully tested forklift + finder access on a different mac.

     

    This suggests to me that you don't have a problem with your home folder, but a Finder problem.

    You may try deleting Finder preferences.

    Paste the following line in the Terminal and press enter:

     

      rm /Users/ross/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist; killall Finder

  • by RossM,

    RossM RossM Jun 19, 2016 1:07 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 19, 2016 1:07 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Luis, thanks for the idea.

    Alas it also did not work.

    I determined to bite-the-bullet. Rather than clean install then i elected to backup, create new user and piecemeal restore. Took a while but it seems to have resolved the issue.

    I will tag your comments as helpful. They were very much appreciated. While not eventually suggesting a 'solution' then they thoughtfully eliminated potential problems to better frame the need for a more brutal solution.

    Cheers, Ross