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

Strange Finder Behavior

M

MarkW19

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 13, 2002
1,209
1
Surrey, UK
I've just been moving everything across from my old PowerMac G5, to my new MacBook Pro, and I seem to have done something with a Finder setting somewhere:-

1. When I just want to MOVE files on the same volume, it now copies them instead of moving.

2. It asks for my login password every single time I want to move/copy a file around.

Can anyone help?
 
That's normal if your trying to move files/folders from some of the folders in /library or any file from /system. If it's happening in your home folder than that is strange.
 
Mr Black said:
That's normal if your trying to move files/folders from some of the folders in /library or any file from /system. If it's happening in your home folder than that is strange.
Click to expand...

I'm just on the Desktop, and other places (Documents etc.)! Odd.
 
This is very odd. I need to enter my password for just moving anything anywhere, inc. just placing in the trash (not emptying).
 
I know exactly what the problem is. I've seen this issue before, and it's always caused by permission problems (for example, your short user name, internal user ID, or both aren't the same on each computer). This can be fixed from the Finder. Open up Macintosh HD, then Users, and select your user folder. Open up the Get Info window, and check the permissions. If you don't own it, and/or don't have read & write access to it, change it so that you do (you will need to type your password). Then, apply this change to all subfolders as well (there's a button you can click to do this).
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
I know exactly what the problem is. I've seen this issue before, and it's always caused by permission problems (for example, your short user name, internal user ID, or both aren't the same on each computer). This can be fixed from the Finder. Open up Macintosh HD, then Users, and select your user folder. Open up the Get Info window, and check the permissions. If you don't own it, and/or don't have read & write access to it, change it so that you do (you will need to type your password). Then, apply this change to all subfolders as well (there's a button you can click to do this).
Click to expand...

Thanks, but unfortunately I've already done that! Made sure my permissions on my entire folder are "Read/Write", then apply to enclosed items - I've done this about 5 times now, and it doesn't alter it.

I just for instance tried to drag a folder out of my ~/documents/work folder, into ~/documents/misc, and it just wants to copy it, then asks for my password. I also try and trash a file from here, and it asks for the password.

Hmm...

Still no luck with this.

Can anyone help?
 
MarkW19 said:
I've got read/write access, but it usually says "you have custom access" when I Get Info on the individual files.

How do I change the owner to me?
Click to expand...
If you prefer to use the Finder:
Get Info on the affected files/folders
Find Ownership and Permissions
Pull it down
Click the lock - you'll be prompted for your password
Click the little pull-down on the owner - if it isn't you change it to yourself
Click the little pull-down for owner permissions, change this to Read & Write
Click Apply to Enclosed Items
Click OK
Dismiss the Get Info Window

If you prefer the Terminal:
Type this command:
Code: 
sudo chown -R (your short username) (drag affected folder to Terminal window)
Press Return to execute it, after making the indicated substitutions in parentheses. Make sure the spaces between the different parts of the command are still there. You'll be prompted for your password. Note that you won't be able to see what you're typing - this is normal.
After you get the prompt back, execute this:
Code: 
sudo chmod -R o+rw (drag affected folder to Terminal window)
 
Thanks for the help, but after doing both methods, it's still the same. For instance, I'm trying to change the name of a file in ~/Documents/Work, and it says I can't because I don't have the necessary access privileges, even though I have Read/Write access in Get Info.

BTW - it's Sharing and Permissions, and it just says "Name", I've nowhere to choose the owner...
 
Something's seriously screwy with your home folder permissions. Does the problem persist if you create a new user and log in as that new user? If it does, the problem lies in the permissions on the User Template that Mac OS X uses when creating users. If not, then... I'm not sure what's going on.

What would help is posting what you get from:
Code: 
ls -l (affected file or folder)
in the Terminal. This could help me isolate the cause.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Something's seriously screwy with your home folder permissions. Does the problem persist if you create a new user and log in as that new user? If it does, the problem lies in the permissions on the User Template that Mac OS X uses when creating users. If not, then... I'm not sure what's going on.

What would help is posting what you get from:
Code: 
ls -l (affected file or folder)
in the Terminal. This could help me isolate the cause.
Click to expand...

Do you mean create a new user, then give the new user read/write access to an "affected" file and see if it works OK?

BTW, in Get Info on my Home dir, even though I have Read/Write access, it says "you have custom access", not "read/write".

I have other related problems as well - I often have to enter my password when emptying the trash, iPhoto comes up with an error saying it's having problems writing to my disk, every minute or so, Photoshop says it can't save my prefs as I don't have the correct privileges, etc.

One specific file I have an issue with (ls-l) returns:-

-rwx------@ 1 markward wheel 909402 20 Dec 23:40
 
MarkW19 said:
Do you mean create a new user, then give the new user read/write access to an "affected" file and see if it works OK?

BTW, in Get Info on my Home dir, even though I have Read/Write access, it says "you have custom access", not "read/write".

I have other related problems as well - I often have to enter my password when emptying the trash, iPhoto comes up with an error saying it's having problems writing to my disk, every minute or so, Photoshop says it can't save my prefs as I don't have the correct privileges, etc.

One specific file I have an issue with (ls-l) returns:-

-rwx------@ 1 markward wheel 909402 20 Dec 23:40
Click to expand...
If that's a file, not a program, it should NOT have execute permission set. And no, I don't mean that - just create a new user, log in as said new user, create a file, save it, then try to open it. If that test works (Mac OS X doesn't ask for your password), then the cause is somewhere in the other user's folder, not globally. I suspect there's an ACL set somewhere. If you can track down which file or folder has the offending permissions (keep going up until you find a folder that doesn't say you have custom access), you can then use a Terminal command to get rid of the ACL:
Code: 
sudo chmod -N (drag offending folder to Terminal window)
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
If that's a file, not a program, it should NOT have execute permission set. And no, I don't mean that - just create a new user, log in as said new user, create a file, save it, then try to open it. If that test works (Mac OS X doesn't ask for your password), then the cause is somewhere in the other user's folder, not globally. I suspect there's an ACL set somewhere. If you can track down which file or folder has the offending permissions (keep going up until you find a folder that doesn't say you have custom access), you can then use a Terminal command to get rid of the ACL:
Code: 
sudo chmod -N (drag offending folder to Terminal window)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was a file.

I have 3 other users on my computer - I even moved most of the same data across from my old machine to their new accounts, that I did with mine (ie. music/pictures/mail etc.) - and they're 100% fine. All non-admin, but don't have many documents, just music/pics/email etc.

I also have problems turning FileVault on, again just on my account - it says there was a problem during copying, at the same point every time. I suspect it's related.

Apple had me doing something with ACLs yesterday, from the OS X DVD, under Reset Password.

All of the folders I can see (inc. Home, Documents, "Work", then subfolders) have "custom" access for me.
 
Weird— I have this same exact problem. It started when I created a second user on my computer, and then tried to grant that user full access to my own home folder. I later decided I didn't want this, and so removed that user's access (all this using the Finder). Now, I need my username/password to modify files in my own home folder.

When I individually select a document in my folder, it has the "everyone" group listed with "custom permissions", followed by my own user listed with "read and write." This makes it say "you have custom access," presumably because the "everyone" group is overriding my own user? When I switch the "everyone" group's access to "none", suddenly it says "you have read & write".

This works perfectly well on an individual basis, but it won't work recursively. Additionally, I can't see any difference using ls -al between a file which I've done this to and one which I haven't.

SO confusing!

I also tried the following, to no avail

sudo chmod -R 000 Documents
sudo chown -R [myuser]:[myuser] Documents
sudo chmod -R 700 Documents
 
garrettnelson said:
When I individually select a document in my folder, it has the "everyone" group listed with "custom permissions", followed by my own user listed with "read and write." This makes it say "you have custom access," presumably because the "everyone" group is overriding my own user? When I switch the "everyone" group's access to "none", suddenly it says "you have read & write".
Click to expand...

Mine does this too.
 
More craziness:

Using BatChmod, if I change the permissions of a single file to User:rwx, Group:none, and Everyone:r, then when I look at that file in the finder, it adds a SECOND 'Everyone', so that the list of permissions is, in order, Everyone:custom, Myuser:read/write, Everyone:read. Then, if I use BatChmod again to set Everyone's permissions back to nothing, it merely gets rid of that second "everyone", leaving the Everyone:custom and the Myuser:read/write.

OS X must be storing this somewhere other than in the file. WHERE???
 
Like I said, I suspect an ACL is set on a folder above the one you're testing - for example, on /Users/username. ACLs, unlike UNIX permissions, can be inherited by children of the object they are set on. Does that explain why the permissions are strange?

To test this theory, try an ls -le on /Users/username from the Terminal.

If you see something like:
Code: 
drwxr-xr-x 1 wrldwzrd89 staff 300 Mar 18 2008 /Users/wrldwzrd89
... then an ACL is NOT set.

If, on the other hand, what you see looks something like this:
Code: 
drwxr-xr-x 1 wrldwzrd89 staff 300 Mar 18 2008 /Users/wrldwzrd89
owner: wrldwzrd89
1: staff deny delete
... then there IS an ACL there.
 
Permissions Problem on Files in Home Directory / More Info

I have the same permission issues as MarkW19 on all files inside my Home Directory. Just got of the phone with Apple Support. 3 hours and no solution.
All folders and subfolders in the Home Directory have the following permissions:
homepermissions.jpg

All files inside the Home Folder or it's subfolder's including Applications (not the Applications though that reside on the Macintosh HD level) have these permissions:
filespermssion.jpg

The problem is the user - everyone - on the top of the users list. With the setting set to CUSTOM you will always be asked to authenticate when moving the file.
I did all the RESET PASSWORD as recommended by Apple Support. No change though. I could reset all permissions on all folders, but the files inside don't change.
Some More Facts: All files outside the Home Folder don't have that problem. All files created anew don't have the problem. Another thing: If I send a file or even a folder with a lot of problem files to another Mac using iChat Bonjour the top user EVERYONE with the CUSTOM privilege permission is gone. This works only when doing it through iChat. If I move the files or folders through a network setup directly there is no change.
Apple elevated the issue by sending it to the developer tech team. They say they might hear back in a week or so.
Other than that Apple says a Archive Install without preserving structure or an Erase and Install would correct the issue. There's no documentation over at Apple on this issue. In addition they say they don't know any command or way to erase that extra EVERYONE user.
wrldwzrd89 you seem to have great knowledge. I have no idea about UNIX commands. If there would be anything that would circumvent an Erase and Install I would be grateful to you.
 
There was, in fact, an ACL set, but it's set EVERYWHERE. chmod -N will take it off of one file/directory, but chmod -NR doesn't seem to work. And if I just run chmod -N on my user folder, and then use Finder's "apply to all enclosed folders" command, that doesn't work either, unfortunately.
 
garrettnelson said:
There was, in fact, an ACL set, but it's set EVERYWHERE. chmod -N will take it off of one file/directory, but chmod -NR doesn't seem to work. And if I just run chmod -N on my user folder, and then use Finder's "apply to all enclosed folders" command, that doesn't work either, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Yes - this is because an ACL, if set on a directory, will be inherited by all files and subdirectories inside it. Removing the ACL on the directory it's set on will also remove the permissions it defined on all files and subdirectories - therefore, you don't need to use chmod -NR. A simple chmod -N /Users/username ought to fix it (from the Terminal). You may need to prefix that command with sudo (superuser do) if you get access denied errors.

EDIT: Also, I should add that it helps to identify which directory (folder) has the ACL set. One way of doing this is to pick a folder that has problems, open the Terminal and use that ls -le command I mentioned earlier to determine if an ACL is set there, and if it is, go up one level and do it again. Keep doing this until you reach a directory that does NOT have an ACL - once you find one of these run ls -le again, but on the contents of the directory you just found. One of the entries will look different from all the others - this is the one that has the ACL on it.

It helps to use the cd (change directory) command to get into the directory you're working on when doing these commands. Also, don't forget that cd .. is a handy shortcut for going up one level.
 
OK, here's my output from ls -le on / :-

total 41093
drwxrwxr-x+ 57 root admin 1938 19 Mar 03:08 Applications
0: group:everyone deny delete
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 4608 20 Mar 15:43 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 2 12 Mar 23:16 Desktop DF
drwxrwxr-t+ 53 root admin 1802 19 Mar 03:08 Library
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 29 Jan 02:22 Network
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136 12 Mar 18:05 System
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 60 12 Mar 18:49 User Guides And Information -> /Library/Documentation/User Guides and Information.localized
drwxr-xr-x 10 root admin 340 20 Mar 15:29 Users
drwxrwxrwt@ 4 root admin 136 20 Mar 15:32 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@ 40 root wheel 1360 18 Mar 23:53 bin
drwxrwxr-t@ 2 root admin 68 29 Jan 02:22 cores
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 512 20 Mar 15:28 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root admin 11 12 Mar 18:03 etc -> private/etc
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 20 Mar 15:28 home
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 10276952 5 Mar 05:25 mach_kernel
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 10725958 6 Feb 07:11 mach_kernel.ctfsys
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 20 Mar 15:28 net
drwxr-xr-x@ 6 root wheel 204 12 Mar 18:18 private
drwxr-xr-x@ 66 root wheel 2244 18 Mar 23:53 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root admin 11 12 Mar 18:03 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x@ 12 root wheel 408 18 Mar 23:53 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root admin 11 12 Mar 18:03 var -> private/var




Output from ls -le on /Users/markward :-

total 0
drwx------+ 8 markward wheel 272 20 Mar 17:22 Desktop
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 9 markward wheel 306 17 Mar 23:46 Documents
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 20 Mar 16:12 Downloads
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 29 markward wheel 986 20 Mar 16:10 Library
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 15 Mar 20:43 Movies
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 8 markward wheel 272 13 Mar 04:03 Music
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 419 markward wheel 14246 17 Mar 17:23 Pictures
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 5 markward wheel 170 12 Mar 18:49 Public
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 5 markward wheel 170 12 Mar 18:49 Sites
0: group:everyone deny delete
 
Looks like 3 problems there.

/Applications has an ACL set that denies delete permission to everyone, which should NOT be the case.
Same with /Library.

To confirm my suspicion that there's one on /Users/markward also, try doing an ls -le from within /Users.

If your findings confirm what I think is happening, then these 3 commands will get things all fixed up:

Code: 
sudo chmod -N /Applications
sudo chmod -N /Library
sudo chmod -N /Users/markward
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Looks like 3 problems there.

/Applications has an ACL set that denies delete permission to everyone, which should NOT be the case.
Same with /Library.

To confirm my suspicion that there's one on /Users/markward also, try doing an ls -le from within /Users.

If your findings confirm what I think is happening, then these 3 commands will get things all fixed up:

Code: 
sudo chmod -N /Applications
sudo chmod -N /Library
sudo chmod -N /Users/markward
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help on this. I just ran ls -le on markward from within Users (before doing anything else), and it returned:-

total 0
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 20 Mar 18:29 Desktop
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 10 markward wheel 340 20 Mar 18:28 Documents
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 20 Mar 16:12 Downloads
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 30 markward wheel 1020 20 Mar 18:20 Library
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 15 Mar 20:43 Movies
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 8 markward wheel 272 13 Mar 04:03 Music
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 419 markward wheel 14246 17 Mar 17:23 Pictures
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 5 markward wheel 170 12 Mar 18:49 Public
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 5 markward wheel 170 12 Mar 18:49 Sites
0: group:everyone deny delete


Then I ran it just on /Users :-

drwxrwxrwt@ 8 root wheel 272 20 Mar 13:47 Shared

drwxr-xr-x+ 14 mainstage staff 476 19 Mar 23:04 mainstage
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------ 19 markward wheel 646 18 Mar 00:02 markward

I've done the chmods on Apps/Lib/markward, and nothing seems to have changed. ls -le /Users/markward still returns:-

total 0
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 20 Mar 18:29 Desktop
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 10 markward wheel 340 20 Mar 18:28 Documents
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 20 Mar 16:12 Downloads
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 30 markward wheel 1020 20 Mar 18:20 Library
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 7 markward wheel 238 15 Mar 20:43 Movies
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 8 markward wheel 272 13 Mar 04:03 Music
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 419 markward wheel 14246 17 Mar 17:23 Pictures
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 5 markward wheel 170 12 Mar 18:49 Public
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwx------+ 5 markward wheel 170 12 Mar 18:49 Sites
0: group:everyone deny delete
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back