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File access permission problem on macOS Sierra Server

Hello everyone,


my friends and I set up a server for our office using a Mac mini (late 2014), running macOS Sierra 10.12.2 and the Server app version 5.2.


We're accessing the server using two iMacs and and a MacBook Pro (all of them currently running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 - Our CAD software isn't certified yet to run on macOS Sierra so we figured we'd wait for the next patch before we update to Sierra).


Setting up the server was super easy, but we encountered a problem with file permissions:


We've set up 3 users to access the server and shared the server's "Documents" folder for us to use. If user #1 is now saving a (let's say) Pages file in it, it's locked for all other users. Trying to remove the lock by user #2 and #3 is not possible. First we thought it's a problem with Pages but then we realized the same happens to other files as well - so it must be an issue caused by read/write permissions on the server.


All 3 users have read/write permissions for the shared directory and its subfolders but new files don't seem to inherit these permissions.


Any help would be appreciated! 🙂


Andi

Posted on Jan 24, 2017 12:09 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 24, 2017 8:02 AM

Hi Andi,


Do not share the Server Documents folder, are you using the one inside the administrator's account?

That will not work.


Create a new folder on the root directory of your server called "Data" for instance. You need the admin permission to create this folder.

Then open up the Server.app and select this folder to share over SMB or AFP, creating a group containing every user and select that group to share the files inside that folder Data.

The administrator will be the user, your created group has read/write permissions and everyone else, no access or read only.

Then try again to save and edit files inside this new share.

Pages might not be a good example, that software has a mini timemachine filesystem built-in, so try with other software to verify read and write permissions.


You might need to propagate permissions when you transfer files from the old share to the new.

  1. Open Server.app and select your server from the services list.
  2. Go to the Storage tab.
  3. Browse to the folder location that you wish to inherit permissions from.
  4. Click the gear at the bottom, and select Propagate Permissions…
  5. Choose the permissions you wish to propagate and click OK.User uploaded file


Goodluck


Jeffrey

4 replies
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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 24, 2017 8:02 AM in response to andi_h_mac

Hi Andi,


Do not share the Server Documents folder, are you using the one inside the administrator's account?

That will not work.


Create a new folder on the root directory of your server called "Data" for instance. You need the admin permission to create this folder.

Then open up the Server.app and select this folder to share over SMB or AFP, creating a group containing every user and select that group to share the files inside that folder Data.

The administrator will be the user, your created group has read/write permissions and everyone else, no access or read only.

Then try again to save and edit files inside this new share.

Pages might not be a good example, that software has a mini timemachine filesystem built-in, so try with other software to verify read and write permissions.


You might need to propagate permissions when you transfer files from the old share to the new.

  1. Open Server.app and select your server from the services list.
  2. Go to the Storage tab.
  3. Browse to the folder location that you wish to inherit permissions from.
  4. Click the gear at the bottom, and select Propagate Permissions…
  5. Choose the permissions you wish to propagate and click OK.User uploaded file


Goodluck


Jeffrey

Reply

Jun 8, 2017 2:12 AM in response to jepping

Hello Jeffrey


I just your post and it's very interesting.
I have almost the same setting, but with 10 users.
The problem is that often , when a user open a file and work on it, save it.... it happen when an other user can't open it, drag it to his computer, or after working on it, can't save it...they have a message that they don't have the permissions..., so I need to open the shared folder on the server and propagate the permissions.


Is there a way to avoid this kind of issue ?
My solution for now is to propagate permissions almost everyday...


Thanks in advance


H.L

Reply

File access permission problem on macOS Sierra Server

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