Screwed up permissions in Library

[Cams]

I have a horrid piece of software, Mamut AccountEdge Plus. It does not let me register without going in to the User/Library/Application Support folder and doing some permission changes. I thought I was doing it right, but it didn't work and now stuff is all messed up. I couldn't get Text Expander to restore from a backup, but I managed to fix that. Now Google Chrome does not keep my extensions and gives the message at launch: Google Chrome didn't shut down correctly. To reopen the pages you had open, click restore.

So at the moment, the info shows the owner as me, the group as staff(20) and everything is checked to read write. And the blasted accounting software still will not register. Thing is, this time I was going to get the system just as I like it then do a disk image, so I really need to get this fixed before I do that. What should the default permissions look like for the Application Support directory?

Here's a screenshot in case it helps: (see attached).

Thanks.

 

[calderone]

There are multiple Application Support directories, which one are you speaking of? That will have a bearing on what the permissions should be.

 

[Cams]

It's the one in my user directory: users/cams/Library/Application Support

 

[calderone]

The permissions themselves while incorrect should be sufficient. I cannot tell however if those permissions were applied recursively.

In terminal type the following:

ls -l ~/Library/Application\ Support/

Post the output here.

Also, you don't really mention what you did to get to this state. Can you post exactly what you did?

 

[Cams]

Here's the output from the terminal:

camss-macbook:~ Cams$ ls -l ~/Library/Application\ Support/
total 0
drwxrwxrwx+  5 Cams  admin  170 11 Nov 20:49 1Password
drwxrwxrwx+ 10 Cams  admin  340 13 Nov 22:17 AddressBook
drwx------+  5 Cams  admin  170 13 Nov 21:06 CrashReporter
drwxrwxrwx+  3 Cams  admin  102 13 Nov 20:57 Dock
drwxrwxrwx@  4 Cams  admin  136 13 Nov 20:58 Google
drwxrwxrwx+  4 Cams  admin  136 12 Nov 22:30 Hazel
drwxrwxrwx+  6 Cams  admin  204 13 Nov 22:01 Last.fm
drwxrwxrwx@  4 Cams  admin  136 12 Nov 20:30 LastPass
drwxrwxrwx+  7 Cams  admin  238 13 Nov 22:23 LaunchBar
drwxrwxrwx+  3 Cams  admin  102 12 Nov 20:27 Mail
drwxrwxrwx+  3 Cams  admin  102 12 Nov 16:32 MobileSync
drwxrwxrwx+  5 Cams  admin  170 13 Nov 22:18 OmniFocus
drwxrwxrwx+  7 Cams  admin  238 13 Nov 21:03 Path Finder
drwxrwxrwx+  2 Cams  admin   68 12 Nov 21:41 Preview
drwxrwxrwx+  6 Cams  admin  204 12 Nov 21:10 Spotify
drwxrwxrwx+  3 Cams  admin  102 11 Nov 15:54 SyncServices
drwxrwxrwx+  6 Cams  admin  204 13 Nov 21:07 TextExpander
drwxrwxrwx@  7 Cams  admin  238 13 Nov 21:07 Ubiquity
drwxrwxrwx+  3 Cams  admin  102 12 Nov 20:28 XLD
drwxrwxrwx+  3 Cams  admin  102 11 Nov 17:14 com.apple.QuickLook
drwxrwxrwx+  3 Cams  admin  102 11 Nov 17:00 iCloud

And I've just found another symptom. See the attached screenshot. This is a mess!

I'm not sure what I did. I clicked 'get info' on the directory and then made sure that my own username had read/write access.

Ah, hang on, I just checked it again and it had 'no access' for 'everyone'. I've changed that to read/write and let me just check. Nope, the iPhone is still not syncing and Chrome is broken. Here's how the terminal command output looks now:

drwx---rwx+  5 Cams  staff  170 11 Nov 20:49 1Password
drwx---rwx+ 10 Cams  staff  340 13 Nov 22:17 AddressBook
drwx---rwx+  5 Cams  staff  170 13 Nov 21:06 CrashReporter
drwx---rwx+  3 Cams  staff  102 13 Nov 20:57 Dock
drwx---rwx@  4 Cams  staff  136 13 Nov 20:58 Google
drwx---rwx+  4 Cams  staff  136 12 Nov 22:30 Hazel
drwx---rwx+  6 Cams  staff  204 13 Nov 22:01 Last.fm
drwx---rwx@  4 Cams  staff  136 12 Nov 20:30 LastPass
drwx---rwx+  7 Cams  staff  238 13 Nov 22:28 LaunchBar
drwx---rwx+  3 Cams  staff  102 12 Nov 20:27 Mail
drwx---rwx+  3 Cams  staff  102 12 Nov 16:32 MobileSync
drwx---rwx+  5 Cams  staff  170 13 Nov 22:18 OmniFocus
drwx---rwx+  7 Cams  staff  238 13 Nov 21:03 Path Finder
drwx---rwx+  2 Cams  staff   68 12 Nov 21:41 Preview
drwx---rwx+  6 Cams  staff  204 12 Nov 21:10 Spotify
drwx---rwx+  3 Cams  staff  102 11 Nov 15:54 SyncServices
drwx---rwx+  6 Cams  staff  204 13 Nov 21:07 TextExpander
drwx---rwx@  7 Cams  staff  238 13 Nov 21:07 Ubiquity
drwx---rwx+  3 Cams  staff  102 12 Nov 20:28 XLD
drwx---rwx+  3 Cams  staff  102 11 Nov 17:14 com.apple.QuickLook
drwx---rwx+  3 Cams  staff  102 11 Nov 17:00 iCloud

This is hard!

 

[Cams]

If I change iTunes to backup to iCloud, I can sync the iPhone. It seems certain that this problem is related to permissions. If I can't fix this, I'll have to spend ANOTHER day reinstalling the OS. <sigh>

Once it's done right though, I can get my disk image. All because of this sodding accounting software. SO ANGRY

 

[robgendreau]

I think there's an Apple utility to reset permissions to default state. It's NOT the permission repair button in Disk Utility; it's called "reset password" or something on the system DVD or hardware repair DVD (obviously you'd need that for Lion). It also seems to me it may be hidden, in which case you might have to start it via Terminal as "resetpassword."

Rob

 

[Cams]

Thanks Rob. That utility is indeed there. I think you hold down Command-R at boot time to get into the Lion restore partition. From there, open terminal and the command is resetpassword. Sad to say though that it didn't work for me, but it's a handy thing to know about.

I'm nearly down with my format / reinstall once again. I've got the accounting software registered and Chrome and iTunes are working fine. Just a few more things to install and then it's disk image time.

All I can say is, thank GOD for dropbox! I've lost nothing!