WD Passport "Applying Privileges"

[js22]

Hi.

Relative newbie here.

Have been using a Macbook Pro with a WD Passport External for backups and file storage. Recently purchased an iMac and connected the WD EHD to it, and it was showing that some folders housing my files were not accessible due to certain restrictions.

I researched how to change permissions on these files, and I've had the same "applying privileges to "WD Passport"" since yesterday.

I've tried to eject the HD to go back and work on the Macbook, but it won't eject.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum!

We need a lot more information. Please read the link in my sig and repost here.

In particular, what exactly did you do to change permissions? And tell us more about what you are trying to do with this EHD and your two Macs. And how is the EHD formatted?

 

[js22]

Hi Jake.

Thanks for the quick reply.

My EHD is formatted as a "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". That's what it is showing me in my "Get Info" window. Not sure if this a valid answer. I can't do anything with this window/EHD other than minimize the window.

I was working on a macbook at work, and they purchased an iMac for me to use. I was going to start working on the iMac and needed to open some files from the EHD, and that's when I noticed that some files had the "red circle w/ white line", indicating that my access would now be denied to these files. That's when I researched how to change permissions. I came across your site, and a thread had the following link embedded into the post. https://support.apple.com/kb/PH13799?locale=en_US

This is where I'm now at after doing everything in that link; "Applying privileges to "My EHD Name".

 

[js22]

I also found some info on using "Disk Utility", but had no idea how to use it, and didn't want to erase any of the files.

 

[MacInWin]

OK, let me try to summarize what I think you are saying. You have two accounts, one on the MBP and one on the iMac. (Yes, they may look to YOU like the same, but trust me, they are different.) You have some files on the EHD that were put there by the account on the MBP and you cannot access them on the iMac because of permissions. What you left out was what, exactly, you did in this:

This is where I'm now at after doing everything in that link; "Applying privileges to "My EHD Name".

When I looked at that reference page, it didn't give any real directions on what exactly to do. But, assuming you want to be able to read and write the files owned by the MBP account on the iMac, then the section of Get Info you want/need is at the bottom of the window that results when you right click (ctrl click) on the folder. I've added the picture from one of my folders for you. At the bottom you can see a section called "Sharing & Permissions" where you can see the current permissions. To add yourself to the group who can read and write, you have a couple of options. The simplest is to let EVERYONE do so, which you can do by clicking on the little lock in the lower right corner, provide an administrator password and then on the right column beside where it says "everyone" click the "read only" and change to "Read & Write" and the let it apply. If you have a ton of documents in that folder, it will take some time for that change to ripple down. A second way to do accomplish what you want is, I think, to right click or ctrl click on the folder you want to have permission to read/write, get info and then add your other account name, give yourself read/write privileges and let that apply. That also will take a while if there are lots of files and has the challenge that if you get your other account name wrong, it won't let you in. Everyone has the advantage that you don't have to worry about the system name of your account but the disadvantage that now anybody can read and write to the files.

 

[js22]

I did all the changing of permissions, which ended up bringing me to the "applying privileges" window. Now that you've mentioned it, I'm assuming i still have that progress window up because i had so many files on there.

There was a box that I checked (if I remember correctly) that would apply to all files.

Based on your response, I'm a little confused on your terminology of "two accounts".

Your assumption of my issue was correct.

I've attached a screen shot to give you an idea of my progress bar, if it helps.

Sounds like i just need to wait it out until the privileges are all applied, am i correct?

 

[MacInWin]

I couldn't make out the details of the screen shot because it was fuzzy when I made it large enough to try to read, but from what I can make out, it looks like Everyone is still just read only. And the progress bar doesn't seem to have made any progress, which may indicate the process has crashed or stalled. You can open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder to see if it has ceased to operate (it will be colored in red). The quickest way to see it is to open Act Mon, click on the CPU tab and then click on the % CPU header until the processes are listed in decreasing percent. If it's active, it will be using CPU. If it's not, as I said it may be in red for stalled. And if the progress bar isn't moving along, nothing is happening. You can kill the process and restart it. I'd suggest a reboot may be the better way to kill the process as the shutdown should try to end that stalled job and if it can't, it should give you the opportunity to Force Quit. Or you can click on the Apple logo upper left and select Force Quit and pick the task from the list and quit it there.

What I mean by "two accounts" is that if you look at the image I posted, you'll see a account for "jakerichards (me)." That is my account on that machine. Now, if I had a second machine and if it had an account named "jakerichards" even though those two accounts look to my eyes to be the same, OS X is treating them as two different accounts. And on that shared drive, some files would have privileges for the account on one machine and others could have privileges on the other. To my eye, they would look to have one owner, namely, "jakerichards" but in fact there would be two owners, and unless I set it up so that jakerichards on machine 1 has access to the files created by jakerichards on machine 2, they will be blocked. But by granting Everyone read and write, I solve the problem by giving all accounts read and write privileges. Does that help?

 

[js22]

I apologize for the fuzziness. In the "Shared & Permissions" section, it shows me as having "Read & Write" privilege, and shows Staff and Everyone as "Read Only".

So, I've opened the Activity Monitor & ran through your steps, and I'm not seeing anything pertaining my EHD. So not quite sure what to do at this point. Not sure if I'm looking at it correctly. I've attached a screen shot of the Act Mon (hopefully not as fuzzy as the last one).

I've hit the apple logo and try to force quit, but my EHD is not listed as an option.

 

[js22]

So I finally rebooted, and was able to unplug the EHD, and all permissions are good when I plugged back into my MBP.

What's the best option to go back and have all permissions when I plug the EHD into my iMac?

Sorry if you've already stated this, but a step by step would really help me right now.

 

[MacInWin]

OK, I had to go out for a while, nice to see you got control. Rebooting can help with processes that are hung up.

I'm not sure what you are asking for, sorry. If the permissions are ok now, why do you think you need to do something? Again, if you gave Everyone read & write privileges, when you move the drive back and forth the files should be available.

Let me try again to explain why Everyone is the account to change. Let's assume your name on the MBP is "jskowron" and on the iMac it's also "jskowron." Let's distinguish them with jskowron (MBP) and jskowron (iMac), even though they are really the same name and look the same to our eyes. When the drive is attached to the MBP, you are logged in as jskworon (MBP) and some of the files belong to you, others belong to jskowron (iMac). The files owned by jskworon (MBP) are available to you, but the files owned by jskowron (iMac) are not because that is a different account as far as OS X is concerned. When you disconnect the drive and attach it to the iMac, you log into jskowron (iMac) and the files on the external drive that are owned by jskowron (iMac) now can be accessed, but the files owned by jskowron (MBP) are not because that is a different account. So, when you are on the MBP you cannot access the files owned by jskowron (iMac) and when you are on the iMac you cannot access the files owned by jskowron (MBP).

I know that was confusing, but it's how security on OS X works. To make the files available on both systems from that drive, you either have to give the jskowron (MBP) account access to the jskowron (iMac) files and vice versa, or you can simply give "everyone" read and write access, which would let jskowron (MBP) and jskowron (iMac) both have read write access. If that is what you want to do, then select the drive or folder you want to share, right click (cntrl click), Get Info, Unlock it at the bottom of the resulting window, click on the column to the right of Everyone under Sharing and Permissions and change access to "read & write" and let it do its thing. Now the drive can go back and forth and all the files should be editable on both machines.

 

[js22]

I apologize for the confusion. When I said that i was able to unplug and reconnect with MBP and that all folders were good, I meant that they were good on the MBP, but still didn't have access to some folders on the iMac.

I've gone through your steps, and still don't have access to all folders when I reconnect on the iMac. What do you mean by "select the drive or folder you want to share"? I've attached another screen shot of the "Get Info" window after i reconnected with the iMac. But now it shows "administrator" instead of me.