Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

rpaloalto

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 19, 2005
733
2
Palo Alto CA.
I just noticed on my main boot drive, in the sharing and permissions section. Their is a user named ''unknown'' This unkown user has read only permissions, and is grayed out. I have tried removing this user by clicking the minus sign. It has no effect. I cant change their privilege level either. I can do this with the other users listed. The ones that aren't grayed out.

This (unknown) user is not listed with the rest of the users. Found in the sharing options, under system preferences. In fact all sharing options are turned off. I don't have a wireless network, nor do I run time machine.

Even when I click on info, for general files and folders. This unknown user is not present. I can only find this user on the main hd.

I have ran permission fix, from disk utility. I even logged in as the root user. To try and change or delete this mystery user, to no avail.

Has any one else experienced or seen any issue like this? Should I worry or be concerned?
 

alanthonyc

macrumors newbie
Dec 6, 2008
4
0
I have the same issue. If you try creating a new account, it will probably be assigned in the "Unknown" user's spot. At least this is what's happening on my mac.

I created another thread for this...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/612677/

I just noticed on my main boot drive, in the sharing and permissions section. Their is a user named ''unknown'' This unkown user has read only permissions, and is grayed out. I have tried removing this user by clicking the minus sign. It has no effect. I cant change their privilege level either. I can do this with the other users listed. The ones that aren't grayed out.

This (unknown) user is not listed with the rest of the users. Found in the sharing options, under system preferences. In fact all sharing options are turned off. I don't have a wireless network, nor do I run time machine.

Even when I click on info, for general files and folders. This unknown user is not present. I can only find this user on the main hd.

I have ran permission fix, from disk utility. I even logged in as the root user. To try and change or delete this mystery user, to no avail.

Has any one else experienced or seen any issue like this? Should I worry or be concerned?
 

marcleonti

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2009
1
0
I've noticed the same thing, but for me it occurs on certain downloaded mp3 files. I tried to change the title or genre of a song in iTunes, but can't. I thought there might be a permissions problem, so I looked there. Sure enough, there is a grayed out (unknown) user that I can't delete. I don't know what to do, other than detete the song and download another copy. I wish I knew how to delete the (unknown) user. Seems like the file has some user associated to it when I download it, but since that user doesn't have an account on my computer I can't change it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.