avoiding permissions refusal

I finally gave upon my much discussed 17" MBP and have a (nearly) new iMac 27" i5 with High Sierra. The migration from most recent MBP TM back-up was fine. However I find myself once again infuriated by being told I do not have permission to do pretty simple things. I went through remembered rituals like using the Information panels, then delved further to creating a Root account, or a rather drastic suggestion of Terminal> csrutil disable.

All I actually want to do is have my files on the directory for the internal drive arranged in folders of my choice, though ideally some in no folders at all and not find I am constantly having to enter admin password and not have to bypass folders like "movies" (everything that moves being categorically banned and in English english called films) or happily start a Pages or rtf file only to be told I can't save it under its new name.

I seem to have 3 choices, or is there a better one?

1: put all files that are not already in a Folder on the Fusion Drive directory into a folder called 0, left open, and put up with frequent calls for admin password (eg to drag a normal folder to trash)
2: shove them all into the admin user directory and seeth past the idiotic but unremovable folders...and maybe still have to enter password, I really don't like this option so haven't tried it far.
3: use the Root account, confusingly called 'others' on start up, and risk doing something ghastly. 3a Terminal> csrutil disable, probably more dangerous still

The computer is at home and no-one else likely to use it apart from visiting family for browsing.

Thanks in advance, Chris

Chris, I cannot seem to make out what the problem really is that is troubling you. I don't have to enter any password to do any of what you have said you want to do. I suspect that you got into trouble in the migration from your MBP to the iMac. I would further guess that you got the iMac, fired it up, created a user name and only then moved your files from the MBP backup. What happens when you do that is your NEW account doesn't have permissions on the files on the OLD account, even if the user name as displayed is the same. Inside the security kernel of the OS, it knows the two are different. Hence, permission issues.

If that is what you did, the best solution is to start all over. If you still have the original TM backup, then completely reinstall HS on the iMac as if it were new and at the FIRST offer to migrate from another machine (which comes before the offer to create an account) tell it to do so and pick the TM backup. It will then create the exact same account on your iMac as was on the MBP and migrate the files as they were on the backup. The permissions will then be all correct and ready to go. If you don't have that original TM backup, then I don't know a quick fix for the problem except maybe to create a new account on the iMac and then use the Shared folders to move the files from where they are now to the new account. Sharing is supposed to fix the permissions so that the new shared user can read and write the files, which is what you want. None of those seem to be your 1, 2, or 3 solutions, but I don't understand what you mean by them anyway.

Hi Jake

No, I did the migration on the 1st offer.

In option 1, I should have said 'everything not already in a folder', which I will correct. Although I log in as primary/admin user, I do not do any saving within that users Home account; that would be what I mean by my option 2. All my saving is done to my folders on the directory for the internal hard drive (because that does not contain folders I regard as fatuous like Documents, Pictures, Movies).

Chris

To augment Jakes's insightful perception of your problems and the possibility that you may have two User Accounts, here are 2 Links. The First offers a way of actually merging these accounts. The second method, which Jake mentioned, employs the Shared Folders approach:

http://pondini.org/OSX/Transfer.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3862590

Of course, both Jake and I are assuming that this is the root problem; but its suggestion makes sense.

I'm really sorry that you've had such a run of bad luck with your Macs.

IEDIT

I've just found out that the first link doesn't seem to work despite being posted in 2017.

crisscross said:

Hi Jake

No, I did the migration on the 1st offer.

In option 1, I should have said 'everything not already in a folder', which I will correct. Although I log in as primary/admin user, I do not do any saving within that users Home account; that would be what I mean by my option 2. All my saving is done to my folders on the directory for the internal hard drive (because that does not contain folders I regard as fatuous like Documents, Pictures, Movies).

Click to expand...

OK, let me see if I have it straight now. You have created your own folders at the root level of the drive ("/"). You do not use the user folder at "/users/<yourusername>/" at all. Or that is what you want to do. Assuming I got that right, you are never going to get around the permissions issue because the security of macOS is designed for you NOT to do that. Your folders are in your directory. My folders, if I had an account on your machine, would be in MY folder and would NOT be available to you at all. And the "/" address is for the SYSTEM and not any user. Now, as an admin, you can override that security system, but you have to do it for every single file you touch. That's to protect the SYSTEM on the hard drive. "Why?" you ask? Because macOS is inherently a multi-user operating system and is designed to protect users from each other. It's fundamental in the system as part of the security.

Now to get to your issue about folder names. In YOUR folder area, you can put whatever folders you want with whatever names you want. And as default, there is a folder named "Documents" which is entirely yours to do whatever you want. Now, I do have files in my Movies folder under my Username, but I created a folder under Documents called "Films" and put some there just fine, was able to then delete them and delete the "Films" folder completely. I didn't try deleting the "Movies" folder under my Username as something is there I want to keep, but I think the system expects that folder to be there for certain applications, so it may be recreated even if I tried to delete it. If you open Finder/Preferences on the Sidebar tab you will see that some folders are able to be shown/hidden, including Movies, Pictures,and Music. That implies that they cannot be deleted, or will be recreated if you do. It is just how the system works.

So, your options are to live within the system design and put your folders within your Documents folder or, if you insist on putting things at root ("/"), then put up with the incessant security of the system to ask for your password to do anything. It's a bit like you live in a block of flats and don't want your furniture in YOUR flat, but want it in the storage area in the basement. To get to anything, you have to unlock the storage area each time. And even if you are the only resident of the block, that security lock is to protect anyone who DOES eventually move in, so you just have to live with it. Or, you can move the furniture to YOUR flat and only unlock your door once (at login) .

Hope that helps.

Thanks Jake - you have it right and confirm I have options 1 & 2 understood correctly. I stay with option 1, which is not that bad; it was only the un-foldered files on which I was being refused permissions. Exactly the same file within a folder is fine.

Will keep my stuff "in the basement" though I would liken it to the ground floor, making it easy to get in and out. This habit goes back 20 years when I was using a CAD prog called Microstation which used PC style filepaths so all directories had to remain as on the original PowerPC computer, running OS9 through several successor computers (including G4 Powerbook, where I still do the odd drawing or model in OS9.2). Probably ought to have changed from OS10.5 on!

Doing research for and brief trial of Option 3 did give me a slightly better understanding of security.

Jake, I am not permitted to give you thumbs up for your brilliant post #5. But it is an elegant summary of the situation, its ramifications and the alternatives.

Ian

Did it for you Ian And at no charge either!

Aw, shucks, guys. That wasn't necessary. But it is appreciated. Thanks!

I went through remembered rituals like using the Information panels, then delved further to creating a Root account, or a rather drastic suggestion of Terminal> csrutil disable.

Click to expand...

BTW: Just a note that the Terminal> csrutil disable should have no real bearing on your problem. It's meant for other System protection stuff and to keep mucker-abouters out of where they may not be supposed to go or at least without knowing what they are doing.




- Patrick
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I've just found out that the first link doesn't seem to work despite being posted in 2017.

Click to expand...

Ian, sadly the Pondini website has ended. The gentleman who was "Pondini" passed away and apparently nobody kept the domain or website active. It looks like GoDaddy has "parked" the website URL for now.

MacInWin said:

Ian, sadly the Pondini website has ended. The gentleman who was "Pondini" passed away and apparently nobody kept the domain or website active. It looks like GoDaddy has "parked" the website URL for now.

Click to expand...

Yes, unfortunately with his passing, the "Pondini" Mac resources site finally came to an end, even if it was getting a bit long in the tooth, but there are still some good Mac resource sites including the one by our own member here Randy B. Singer.

It's available with many recent and current updates:
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html




- Patrick
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