External HD Permissions

[Schafies]

Hi All,

I have an external HD that is formatted for Mac (puchased that way). My Macbook Pro (Mid 2009) is backed up to this HD via Time Machine. I recently gave my daughter this computer figuring I would use my wife's Macbook until I can purchase a new one. My problem is that when on my wifes computer using my external HD I cannot make changes to or save changes back to my HD with any of my files, specifically Numbers and Pages. It is a permissions thing and I also get a prompt that states "cannot make changes to backed up files" When I check "get info" on the files read/write is activated. What do I need to do to correct this? My Numbers files are dynamic in that I have to make changes to them daily. Also, if I cannot make changes on my wife's Macbook what will happen when I get a new Mac and I transfer my files from my external, will I experience the same problem? Sorry for the winded question.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Are you logging into the two Macbook's with different usernames? If so, all of the files on the external HD are assigned to the user on your MBP and the user on the Macbook will not have access unless you specifically give them access..

 

[Schafies]

Thanks for the reply Raz0rEdge, On my wifes MB I am just turning it on and plugging in the external HD. How do I specifically give her access? I have had my MBP since 2010 and have had very little problem swithching from PC's but when issues like this come up I am totally lost.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

With the external HD plugged into the MB, click on any of the files click Get Info and you'll see a dialog like the one below (a random one I picked from Google)

Now, look at the Sharing & Permissions section. You will see three rows..the first is the User (owner) of the file, the second is the Group (staff is in this case) and the last is World (or everyone as Mac calls it). Each of these have a particular permission associated with them. Usually all files are Read & Write for the User(Owner), they are Read for Group and World.

If two accounts both belonged to the same Group (staff) for example, and the permissions were set to Read & Write for the Group, then both users can access the files without any problems.

So take a look at the Get Info dialog and tell us exactly what you see.

Also, the first line there will say "<your username> (me)" which should match up with your username your MBP.

 

[Schafies]

When I Get Info on the file the first line has my wifes username not mine. I'm not at the computer at this time but I looked at that yesterday while trying to figure out this problem.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

OK, let's see if we can do this a bit quicker at the Terminal (I'm faster with that than the UI )..

Open up the Terminal and try the following commands

cd /Volumes/<Name of External HD>
ls -l

You will see something like the following..

total <number>
drwxr-xr-x     <number>  <username>  <group>  <number> <date> <time> <directory name>
-rwxr-xr-x      <number>  <username>  <group>  <number> <date> <time> <file name>

The first is a directory and the second is a file. You will see a bunch of these. Take a look at the <username> and <group> entries..let's see if it says your wife's username or your username from your MBP..

 

[Schafies]

Ok. I will try that tonight and get back to you. Again, thanks for the help

 

[Schafies]

FYI. If I take a Numbers file and drag it from my external HD I can work in it and make changes with no problems but when I try to put the the file back to the HD from the desk top it stops me saying "this item cannot be moved because"documents can't be modified". While it's telling me this the Finder icon on the Dock is jumping up and down. I thought I would pass this info along to you before doing the the terminal thing. Any thoughts?

 

[Schafies]

More info. I can drag the edited file fro the desk top to the external HD. It just won't let me put it back in the backups.backup folder Time Machine made. I am really confused now! Help!