Permissions
Suddenly, my 27" iMac w/Yosemite is sending error messages, "You don't have permission to..." Drag and Drop; opening Files; editing; etc., so those don't work.
Umpteen times, I have run Repair Permissions; set Permissions in Info; rebooted; relaunched Finder; run Disk Genius 4, but the problem persists.
Any suggestions to solve the problem will be gratefully accepted.
Thanks
Comments
Repair permissions mainly resets permissions on certain files and/or folders that are altered during various software installation processes. When you give permission to install something, it may need write access to a directory that is normally read only. Relaunching finder won't change anything, because those permissions bits are still set a certain way.
You can change this by right or control clicking on the folder, changing its permissions, clicking the wheel icon, and hitting apply to enclosed items. If that doesn't work, log into an admin account and use the terminal. See chmod. If chmod doesn't work, it may require the prefix sudo.
I suggested single user mode a while back when someone had an entire volume locked, but this isn't anywhere near as problematic.
If you check the parent folders that those files are in as well as the files themselves, hitting command-i on each will show the permissions. Files and folders that you've made should have your account name as the top item in Sharing and Permissions with read and write next to it and make sure you are logged in under that account name.
That works on some files but not on others even though it shows I have custom access. "Apply to enclosed items" and/or 'Make (me) the owner" are grayed out.
You can change this by right or control clicking on the folder, changing its permissions, clicking the wheel icon, and hitting apply to enclosed items. If that doesn't work, log into an admin account and use the terminal. See chmod. If chmod doesn't work, it may require the prefix sudo.
I get weird messages like warnings not to do that or "command unknown" and when a password is required, it won't take my typing. I'm not Terminal savvy. Could you give me a command that could work?
In the meantime, I've found a work-around when managing files on my external HDD. Under Cmd "I", INFO, I checked the box: "ignore ownership on the volume". That works, but I'm concerned that the drive may be open to hackers. Is that a possibility?
Another question I have. If I'm connected to the internet through a router, do I still need an OS X firewall? Doesn't the router have its own firewall?
I get weird messages like warnings not to do that or "command unknown" and when a password is required, it won't take my typing. I'm not Terminal savvy. Could you give me a command that could work?
Someone else mentioned that Apple changed sudo with El Capitan. I was unaware of that. chmod is definitely a core part of the underlying bsd structure. If you're having a tot of trouble with binaries, you might be better off with a package manager. I didn't suggest one, because my results haven't been perfect with any of the ones designed for OSX. Brew is pretty simple, but I still get annoying quirks where it tells me that a library I want to update is installed but not linked and stuff like that. It isn't hard to fix, but it could be a headache if you aren't used to it.