Permissions

One of the key components that needs to be working properly for any system is the primary storage medium (be it a hard drive or SSD drive). If the system cannot access files from the boot drive then you may experience slow-downs, errors, hangs, and crashes. Usually provided the hardware and file system format are working properly these errors can be addressed with a permissions fix, a general maintenance routine, or even an OS installation (which is fairly seamless with OS X); however, if there are problems with the file system, then the fix is not so easy.

If your … Read more

When establishing a file-sharing connection to your Mac from a different computer, the system may display a number of available items to you, which include all hard drives and your home folder in addition to various shared folders you may have enabled. This can leave new OS X users confused about why the system appears to be so open and accessible, and may cause concern about the security of files in OS X.

OS X has three default share-point locations:

Filesystem roots: The root (base folder) of any locally mounted filesystem is available through file sharing; however, it is only … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed from our readers. This week we have questions on propagating permissions to enclosed items in a folder, managing items in the System library, burning iMovie projects to disc, and using multiple antivirus utilities in OS X. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few here, we certainly welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Permissions propagation to enclosed items

As part of an ongoing troubleshooting effort, MacFixIt reader "Ernst" asked:

What does "… Read more

The Help Viewer is a service available for applications to display troubleshooting and guidance documentation; however, in some instances the help viewer may just display a blank window, especially after performing upgrades, application installations, or system restores. We recently discussed re-enabling JavaScript as one option for fixing this issue if it crops up; however, there are other possibilities as well.

Preference files MacFixIt reader "Neil" wrote in, mentioning he had fixed this issue by tackling the preference files associated with the viewer. There are three files, all of which are located in the /username/Library/Preferences/ folder:

The OS X Trash may sometimes give people problems where files cannot be deleted. Usually if you come across a file for which you do not have write privileges, the system will prevent you from moving it to the Trash. But there are instances when odd permissions setups for files can result in bizarre errors when you try to delete them.

One such error may be: "The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003)," but others include a simple warning that you do not have enough privileges to perform the delete action.… Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed from our readers. This week we have questions on SUID file errors when fixing permissions, options for ejecting optical drives, problems with optical drives immediately ejecting, and the lack of a track joining option for audio books in iTunes 10. While we continually answer e-mail questions and present a few here, we certainly welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: SUID File errors when fixing permissions

MacFixIt reader "Ian" asks:

When I do a Permissions Repair … Read more

There are times when you may copy files or folders to your system and cannot access them because the system does not allow you permission to them. In the case of folders, you may see a small "no entry" symbol to the lower right of the folder icon. This may happen after migrating or copying files, but it can also happen when accessing shared resources such as network drives, thumb drives, or external hard drives.

The reason these files are not accessible is a simple mixup in the permissions flags for them. Usually when you copy files, the … Read more

The home folder permissions in OS X are set up in such a way as to provide you access to your files, but only allow other users to see certain shared folders in your account. Every now and then people will come across situations where the home folder permissions are not working properly, and sometimes this can prevent them from logging in to their account and accessing files.

Unfortunately, running a permissions fix on the hard drive with Disk Utility will not check or fix the permissions of user accounts, and instead will only tackle faults with system file and … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature from MacFixIt in which we answer questions e-mailed to us by our readers. This week we have questions asking for clarification on our previous article about account and group associations, the system displaying the wrong printer icon in the system preferences, and a common problem where upon deleting a file you will be prompted to delete it immediately instead of putting it in the trash.… Read more