Switching over to iMac -file problems

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Hi,

I'm upgrading computers from my very old MacBook (12 years old) to a newer iMac (I'm now running Yosemite 10.10.5). I'm in the process of transferring all my data and documents to this iMac but I have had some problems I've yet to solve. I used the Mac utility Migration Assistant to accomplish the document transfer but not with resounding success.

I have a lot of business files that are documents using TextEdit, usually between one and five paragraphs (one-pagers). I add to or update these files from time to time, fairly regularly as part of my business. It seemed on my old MacBook if a file was opened within the last month, I could open, edit and re-save normally, without doing anything special. However, if it was a file that I had not opened recently (longer than a month, or so) then my computer would prompt me with a dialog box, asking for my password first, then allow me to open, edit and re-save as I saw fit to do. Now, on this iMac with the very same files brought over via Migration Assistant, I get a very different behavior. I get a dialog box saying I'm not authorized to make any changes and I cannot open or edit any of these files but I do have the option of making a duplicate file which I can edit. However, after a few weeks I'll have 10 or 12 duplicate files none of which will have the complete data I need so this is unacceptable. I need to have access, to get into these files.

When I got this iMac, from a generous friend (all her data and documents had been wiped clean here/transferred to her current computer), I first re-set the master password, next, I made myself the administrator with another password. None of these have helped me gain editing access to my files and data. I've explored preferences in both the Apple menu and the TextEdit menu without any success. There must be a way to let the administrator use and gain access to these files but what is it?

I should add that I'm not a power user, I used computers minimally, email and some business correspondence and data saving. Also, I'm the only one who uses this computer (as is also true of my former MacBook). I live alone, it's my home computer and no one else has access to this machine.

Any ideas on how to unlock my documents would be greatly appreciated,

Bob M.
 
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Ok, the problem is that you used Migration Assistant to move the files AFTER you had created an account for you. The better way to have done it would have been to reinstall the OS completely, erasing and reformatting the drive and then when it booted for the first time use Migration Assistant to move the files then. What would have happened is that the files would have been moved, your account details also moved over and an account for you just as it was on the old MBP would have been set up with all the permissions you needed. What you did was to create a new account (even if it has the same login name, it has a unique account identifier for the operating system), then use Migration Assistant to move the files, which presumably ended up in a folder that was NOT in your account, and which now has its own unique identifier associated with it. Resetting passwords won't fix it, it has more to do with the internal unique identifiers and the way security on *nix based systems works.

So, how to fix it. One way is to move the files from the place that Migration Assistant put them to a shared space. In Finder, if you go to the MacintoshHD drive, then Users, there should be a user named Shared. That user can be the "swing" space to move the files from where they currently are to where you can use them. Copy all the files and folders you want to that shared user, then copy them again from that shared user to your new account on the iMac. That process should reset the permissions on the files to where you can now open them successfully. Another way to get rid of the permission issue is to copy the files/folders to an external drive not formatted for Mac, say a drive formatted for Windows, like XFAT, where permissions data is "lost" and then copy them back to the drive into your account. That double copy should wipe out any permissions on the originals because XFAT does not support permissions.

As for the problem with having 10 or 12 duplicates, I bet you are opening the original file each time, getting the message about the permission issue and duplicating it right then. Then you save the file with the new data to the duplicated file and the original is unchanged. What you should be doing is to make the duplicate so that it has your account information associated, then delete the original and only open the duplicate from then on. That way you don't have dupes of dupes and the permissions get sorted out properly.
 
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Thank you, yes, it's now obvious I did something wrong but of course, the Migration Assistant didn't tell me any of this beforehand. They make it sound so easy but of course, it's not, it's complex as you've pointed out. My old computer (toward the end) was working so badly that I'm not sure I wanted to copy and bring over all this stuff that's on that machine. I tried to 'limit' what Migration Assistant would do, what type of files it would copy and bring over but that was wishful thinking on my part. Once it got control, it did what it wanted - I felt like I was up against Skynet and was waiting for the machine gun robots to come into my computer room. I know there's always ways around these problems. I guess I was looking for the elegant solution. Can't I re-write the permissions?

Thanks again,

Bob M.
 
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Can't I re-write the permissions?
Not easily. You can right-click on the file, then Get Info and at the bottom of the resulting panel is a section called "Sharing & Permissions" where you can make the change for that file. Click on the lock icon just below that, put in your admin password then click the "+" to add a person, select your login name from the list, then change the privilege to Read & Write and that should do it. Click on the red dot at the top and the panel will disappear. Now repeat that for every file you want to have access to. As I said, not easily done.
 
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Here is the Apple link on Migration Assistant: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

In there it says:
In the example above, John Appleseed is a macOS user account. If you transfer an account that has the same name as an account on your new Mac, you're asked to rename the old account or replace the one on your new Mac. If you rename, the old account appears as a separate user on your new Mac, with a separate home folder and login. If you replace, the old account overwrites the account on your new Mac, including everything in its home folder.
Not abundantly clear, but different users cannot share data as part of the security system unless they go through the Shared account, or use an external drive, as I described. macOS is a multi-user system, so keeping each user confined to only THEIR files is deeply embedded in the security of the system. That feature trips us up when we are the only user and forget that it is still there.
 
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Which specific Mac OS X/OS X/macOS version is the iMac running?
 
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He said in the OP it was Yosemite.
 
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Well explained - thank you!
 
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I'm using Yosemite (OS X 10.10.5) on the iMac - my 'new' computer.

My old computer is a MacBook running Lion (OS X 10.7.5). So many programs/apps just quit running or ran poorly on that machine that it was time to upgrade and I was lucky enough to get my friend's 'hand-me-down' computer. The best part of this that the iMac that I'm using now works great with my iPhone, which is about a similar age. I like this iMac better as I never took my MacBook anywhere; it just stayed at home.
 
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Jake,

I did a test on a not very important file but couldn't get it to work. When I right-clicked on the file, I get a box with the filename and where it's stored (Mac hard drive). There's a small box in the lower right corner that says Locked and it is checked. When I un-check this box, I get a dialog box that says 'the file 'xxxxx' cannot be unlocked' and I'm given two choices cancel or duplicate. There is no option for Get Info nor is there at the top left menus of the screen (command line). I tried command - I, (shortcut for get info) but I just get that negative buzzer sound (you can't do that). So I'm stuck again. Thanks for your help.

Bob M.
 
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Is your own account an Admin account? Admins should be able to see all files on the system, including files not their own. In any case, click on the Duplicate option to make a copy of the file that you can open. The duplicate will have permissions for you to open the file for edit and saving.

Is it an option for you to just wipe out the iMac and start over using Migration Assistant properly? If you don't have a lot of stuff on it that is not on the old MBP, that may be the quickest way to solve this. If you can do that, make a backup of what you have now on the iMac, then boot holding down the R key to enter the recovery partition and format/reinstall the OS, then when it boots, it should offer MA, which you can take right then and not have this issue. You can restore from either the old MBP or the TM backups of that machine. Once done, MA will have created an account with the same name/password as on the MBP and your files will be in there, all ready for that account to use. Then you can go to the backup you made of the iMac before you started and restore what changed after you got the iMac. The only challenges should be some software that will be moved that may need to be re-registered. Adobe and Microsoft products are the prime offenders here as their anti-piracy practices are pretty stern.
 
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Jake,

I did a test on a not very important file but couldn't get it to work. When I right-clicked on the file, I get a box with the filename and where it's stored (Mac hard drive). There's a small box in the lower right corner that says Locked and it is checked. When I un-check this box, I get a dialog box that says 'the file 'xxxxx' cannot be unlocked' and I'm given two choices cancel or duplicate. There is no option for Get Info nor is there at the top left menus of the screen (command line). I tried command - I, (shortcut for get info) but I just get that negative buzzer sound (you can't do that). So I'm stuck again. Thanks for your help.

Bob M.
Try to change the permissions on the folder containing those files? Or maybe whichever folder that folder is in? Maybe on your "Home" folder?
 

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