can't take ownership of files

[vix2000]

This is driving me nuts. When I go into the info for any file the take ownership option is greyed out. As a new mac user I've no idea how to change this. On windows you just right clicked and 'run as administrator' which is all `i want to do, but after 2 hours searching I'm tearing my hair out!!! Help, please

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Have you clicked the little lock icon yet and maybe even used the "apply to enclosed items" option?
http://mac.appstorm.net/how-to/os-x/making-the-most-of-finders-get-info-pane/

 

[Dalton63841]

Open Terminal and type:

chown -R "your username":staff "path/to/file"

Note you can just drag the file into the terminal window and it will automatically drop in the file path.

Be careful what you change privileges to. If it is greyed out now, then when you are done playing with the file go back to terminal and type:

chown -R root:wheel "path/to/file"

 

[vix2000]

I have clicked the lock icon but that didn't do anything. I tried the terminal but don't know if I did it right. I have installed menucalendarclock and there is an option in the advanced display preffs to hide the dock icon. It is greyed out and says this option is only available for administrators, which I thought I was. Hence the attempts to take ownership etc. Its now 2am and I've been trying since 23.30!!!!!! Thanks for all the suggestions. If anyone has this software i'd be grateful for any tips. its not life or death but my dock is getting pretty ful and I don't need this icon there.

 

[mac2x]

Use

ls -lt

on the directory the file of interest resides in. This will echo the order most recently modified descending, and will also echo the owners and groups.

 

[Hal Itosis]

Use

ls -lt

on the directory the file of interest resides in. This will echo the order most recently modified descending, and will also echo the owners and groups.

Let's go with:

ls -ltOe

instead... to see what flags (-O) or ACLs (-e) might be present, which could be causing the resistance that vix2000 is experiencing.

 

[LPZ]

I have clicked the lock icon but that didn't do anything. I tried the terminal but don't know if I did it right. I have installed menucalendarclock and there is an option in the advanced display preffs to hide the dock icon. It is greyed out and says this option is only available for administrators, which I thought I was. Hence the attempts to take ownership etc. Its now 2am and I've been trying since 23.30!!!!!! Thanks for all the suggestions. If anyone has this software i'd be grateful for any tips. its not life or death but my dock is getting pretty ful and I don't need this icon there.

I think we should see if you have an admin account. Open System Preferences and click on Accounts in the System section of the pane. In the Accounts pane, what does it say at the top left under My Account?