How do I give "permission" to hundreds of files! Everything's read-only!

[ero87]

Hi friends,

I just moved a ton of files onto my new MacBook, and for whatever reason a ton of folders and files are read-only. I know how to change this on an individual basis, clicking Get Info and putting in my password to change the permissions, but this is becoming tedious. Is there some way to master-change the permissions of every file?

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[iCol]

Yep.

Click on the folder that contains all the files and click 'Apple>I' (Get Info). Under the 'Sharing & Permissions:' tab, change the Privilege (permissions) to 'Read & Write' and then click on the little cog with arrow at the bottom and choose 'Apply to enclosed Items'.

This will make all files in that folder read & write.

iCol

 

[belvdr]

I'd also recommend getting to know Terminal. In Terminal, you could:

change only the permissions of files modified in the past 7 days so it is owner writable and readable by everyone else:

find <directory> -type f -mtime +7 -exec chmod 644 {} \;

change only the permissions of directories so everyone has access:

find <directory> -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Much more control and power over what you want to do. It's not just about the GUI, when there's a Unix-like layer underneath.

 

[ero87]

Yep.

Click on the folder that contains all the files and click 'Apple>I' (Get Info). Under the 'Sharing & Permissions:' tab, change the Privilege (permissions) to 'Read & Write' and then click on the little cog with arrow at the bottom and choose 'Apply to enclosed Items'.

This will make all files in that folder read & write.

iCol

yes! Thanks so much!