How do you 'nuke' (globally reset) all permissions in Yosemite?

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Level 1

8 points

How do you 'nuke' (globally reset) all permissions in Yosemite?

Ever since I updated to Yosemite last year on my 2010 MacPro Hexacore tower, my permissions have been a mess. Regardless of all of my attempts to repair permissions, or give anyone and everyone permissions to any hard drive or folder, I still can't write, save or transfer files not only on my home network, but also on my own tower hard drives. I can't even import CDs now with iTunes, because 'I don't have permissions', even though I have updated those correct folders. I'm in PERMISSIONS ****! I refuse to update to El Capitan until I can resolve this. Is there a way to globally 'nuke' /reset all permissions so that I can just start over again with permissions? Or remove all permissions? There is no one else in our household that I need to even worry about permissions. Thanks in advance for any help. -Brian

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 6-core tower

Posted on Jul 13, 2016 10:32 AM

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Answer 1

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,306 points

Jul 13, 2016 11:34 AM in response to briangoo7

if the drives are formatted NTFS you won't be able to write without 3rd party software

Mac OS X allows you to read NTFS drives, but not write to them.

If the drive is formatted Mac Extended, Fat 32 or ExFat you can turn off ownership by clicking the drive icon, then pressing CMD+i then going to sharing and permissions, unlock the drive and choose "ignore ownership"

if this is not working create a new administrative account and boot to that account.

failing that you should back up your system and reinstall the OS.

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Answer 2

Esquared

Level 6

12,415 points

Jul 13, 2016 10:54 AM in response to briangoo7

You can use the Reset Password tool in Recovery Mode (don't get fooled by its name):

http://macs.about.com/od/Troubleshooting/qt/Mac-Troubleshooting-Reset-User-Accou nt-Permissions.htm

Be sure to have backups of everything. 🙂

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Answer 3

briangoo7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 13, 2016 11:37 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

My boot drive is Mac Extended (Journaled). The other drives should have been formatted that way as well, but in disk utility, it lists them as "Logical Volume Group". (single partition each, listed as "Logical Partition"). These drives have not changed since before moving to Yosemite last year, and didn't have the permissions issues. When I installed Yosemite, I did so on a new boot drive from scratch, and then migrated the information. All permissions were working before that. The move to Yosemite has been a very poor experience.

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Answer 4

briangoo7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 13, 2016 11:40 AM in response to Esquared

I may have to try this one. Backing up all of my 4-5 internal drives could take some time though. I have all of my photos/music/project files backed up externally and take them offsite. Thanks for the info.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,341 points

Jul 14, 2016 10:53 AM in response to briangoo7

User File Ownership - Reset see post by Linc Davis

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