Changing permissions in terminal

Hi, I'm trying to change the permissions on an app through terminal. The app name is more than one word (Dora's Big Birthday Adventure.app) and I can't seem to do it. I'm trying to use the chmod command, and it says that the file name does not exist. Can anyone help?

Enclose the name of the file in "quotations marks" to make Terminal ignore the space.
>Dora's Big Adventure.app
will return
Dora: no such file or directory
you need to type
>"Dora's Big Adventure.app"

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After trying to change permissions on my computer so others on my network can access files, my external Hard Drive has a lock on it and I can't access files. I've tried repairing permissions, logging in under another Administrator account, using Terminal

After trying to change permissions on my computer so others on my network can grab files, my external Hard Drive has a lock on it and I can't access files. I've tried repairing permissions, logging in under another Administrator account, using Terminal to fix the problem, downloaded BatChmod but nothing works… Any other suggestions? I have an Imac running OS10.6.8.

There is suddenly a lock icon on my external backup drive!
Custom Permissions

How do I change permissions on many files at once?

Hello!
I recently had a large hard drive crash, and, long story short, I got all my data back but now have a different user account on a new hard drive. The permissions on all the files on the computer are fine.
However, I am a recently graduated film student and use an external drive to edit video. When I tried to open up Final Cut Pro and work on a project, I was told that the program couldn't work because I didn't have "write" access to my scratch drives. I changed the permissions on the relevant folders and can now open the application fine, but can't actually edit because ALL the medi files don't give me full read/write access.
I can change them all one at a time, which requires I enter my password for each one, but this would take a few days of work to complete.
My question is: how can I add my user account with read/write permission to many files at once? I've heard this can be done with Terminal, but I'm not sure how.
Please give me step-by-step instructions if you can! I have never used Terminal before! I am not a techie, but I want to be, and I learn quickly!
My computer specs:
15in Macbook Pro, early 2008.
System 10.5.8

In the Finder's Get Info window, under permissions, you can click the little gear icon and set the "Apply to encoded items" flag. Then when you change permissions, it will apply to everything underneath the selected folder.

Unable to change permissions on Hard Disk Drives after rolling back OSX Lion to Snow Leopard

Are you able to help me?
I had several problems with permissions and a series of other serious issues after upgrading to Lion, so I did a clean re-install of Snow Leopard 6.4 (from disk), upgraded to 6.8 and still had permissions problems which I have made worse by doing what I thought made sense - giving my administration user access to all hard disks and time machine back-ups. I emphasise "hard disks" because I have an iMac 27" i7 and 250GB Flash Drive provided by Apple where I keep OSX and aplication files. Thus the Flash Drive (FD) becomes the boot disk, not the Hard Drive.
Changing preferences on the Apple HD (not FD) and the Time Machine Backup HD to my user name (with administration privaleges) has had the reverse effect of not giving me access to anything other than my OSX system volume on my 250GB Flash drive! I can only see my files on the hard drives with the root user (which I have used for the first time ever to get that access). But using the root user does NOT allow me to change permissions of either my Time Machine backup disk or the Hard drive on my iMac ! Why oh why??
Googling for solutions suggested using iRepair to change permissions but that gives me a "boing" when I try with no effect - at least a "boing" is more feedback that the Apple Finder's response to my attempt to alter permissions in the "info" window!
Oh! and of course I have unsuccessfuly tried the Disk Utility as well, which does come back with errors - that appear to be "safe to ignore" from Apple Support's website!
I originally posted a slightly different message to this one to https://discussions.apple.com/message/16955471#16955471 because it appeared to have similar issues. It appears as if my problem is unfortunately quite unique!
Godfrey Bridger
Hamilton, New Zealand

So the background to this situation:
1. The user had OS 10.6.8 installed on one volume, while his actual users home folders stored on a second volume, this is fine but can sometimes cause issues during/post upgrade to 10.7
2. The user upgraded to 10.7 and while his home folders were still being accessed, he no longer had permission to change or modify them.
3. The user downgraded to 10.6.4 again which broke the link for his users completely.
4. In an attempt to change the permissions for his information he had the (common) mistake of changing the permissions of his root level of his drive, this did several things, in addition to negatively effecting his OS, it also locked the drive mount points in his (hidden) /Volumes/ folder.
5. the steps taken to help rectify this issue:
A. Open Terminal.
B. TYPE:
chmod -N /
chmod 1775 /
chown root:admin /
C. Reboot computer
D. Open Disk Utility.
E. Repair permissions on the boot volume.
F. Also the following commands were run on her second drive to allow him access to his stuff again:
sudo chflags -R nouchg /path to drive/
chmod -R 775 /path to drive/
chmod -RN /path to drive/
chown -R username:staff /path to drive/
Once the permissions repair is complete the Users can be readded to the System Preferences>Accounts pane and the paths to home directories located in his second drive using the "Advanced Options..." section, but due to the time the permissions repair was going to take this step will be posted tomorrow.
Also each user will require Terminal commands to make the permissions unique for each user: (this must be done PRIOR to the users being added in System Preferences>Accounts.
chmod -N /
chmod 1775 /
chown root:admin /
sudo chflags -R nouchg /path to home folder/
sudo chmod -R 775 /path to home folder/
sudo chmod -RN /path to home folder/
sudo chown -R username:staff /path to home folder/
EE

How do you rename, or change permissions on many files?

**Note** there are SUDO commands here that can potentially wreck up your system. If you have questions about this stuff, post in the forum or ask someone verbally to help. The sudo command can really cause problems if you're not entirely sure what you're doing.
I had an issue a while ago where I had to rename about 400 pictures all in the same folder. They were all named by a students PEN #. I needed an incremental number starting at 001.jpg. I was hoping to figure out a script either in apple script or in terminal that would do the job. I called a friend of mine at another school with my problem (he's a windows guy) and he had this great idea.
First of all, using terminal list all the files.
The command is simply "ls" without the quotes.
Select all the files that the ls command outputs and copy it. (command c)
Next, open up excel or numbers or any spreadsheet program, select cell B1 and paste the list of files in question.
When I type SPACE below, I mean hit the space bar.
Now comes the fun part.
In cell A1 type mv SPACE
In Cell C1 type SPACE
In Cell D1 type 001
In Cell E1 type .jpg
In Cell F1 type the following.
Fill down each of the columns to the bottom of the list of file names.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
mv
pennumber1.jpg
001
.jpg
=CONCATENATE(A1..E1)
mv
pennumber2.jpg
002
.jpg
=CONCATENATE(A2..E2)
mv
pennumber3.jpg
003
.jpg
=CONCATENATE(A3..E3)
mv
pennumber4.jpg
004
.jpg
=CONCATENATE(A4..E4)
mv
pennumber5.jpg
005
.jpg
=CONCATENATE(A5..E5)
Now Select all of column F and copy it.
Open up terminal and navigate to the folder that's containing all your files to be renamed.
Hit paste and press enter.
This will paste in the contents of each cell in the f column followed by an enter.
Voila!
Now, if you wanted to change ownership of a set of folders, you could use the same process.
I'm assuming that the folder's that your changing are home folders here. In other words, the home folder name should be the same as the shortname of your user.
It might look something like this:
Navigate to the folder that conains your user folders. **CAUTION ----SUDO AHEAD*** This command can BREAK YOUR COMPUTER if you're not careful.
Type: sudo -s
type your password.
Copy the list of Folders from terminal.
Paste them into some column way on the right in excel or numbers or whatever. Maybe column F or something.
Now, in A1 type chmod SPACE        and fill it down all the way.
In B1 type -R SPACE         and fill it down all the way
In C1 type =F1 SPACE       and fill it down all the way
In D1 type =F1       and fill it down all the way
In E1 type =CONCATENATE(A1..D1)        and fill it down all the way
The spreadsheet might look like this:
A
B
C
D
E
F
chmod
-R
=F1
=F1
=CONCATENATE(A1..D1)
thor
chmod
-R
=F2
=F2
=CONCATENATE(A2..D2)
incrediblehulk
Again, just copy and paste column E into terminal and poof! It should work!
*Note, it might be a good idea to run a trial on a folder that's not important to you before you start. These commands you're running can wreck things up pretty good. So ensure things are set up properly before hand!
HTH
-Graham

In the Finder's Get Info window, under permissions, you can click the little gear icon and set the "Apply to encoded items" flag. Then when you change permissions, it will apply to everything underneath the selected folder.

I can't move files or folders or delete files without authentication. Also, it doesn't appear that I can change permissions?

I can't seem to move or delete files or folders on my MacBook Air mountain lion system. It doesn't appear that changing permissions works either? Any ideas?

Back up all data now.
This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.
Step 1
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:20 ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ 2> /dev/null
Be sure to select the whole line by triple-clicking anywhere in it. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command.
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2
Boot into Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select Utilities ▹ Terminal from the menu bar. A text window opens.
In the Terminal window, type this:
resetpassword
That's one word with no spaces. Then press return. A Reset Password window opens. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select  ▹ Restart from the menu bar.

Changing permissions crashes finder.....

Hi,
After 'upgrading' to Leopard every time I try to change permissions for a file or directory it causes finder to crash.
If I look at the information for a specific file or folder there is an "Unknown" user listed in the users box. Also, just trying to create a new folder and then change permissions on it causes the same crash.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Edit: I used the Archive and Install when installing Leopard.
Message was edited by: fushigi

Cut'n Paste wrote:
Same problem here. The '+' button acts as a 'crash' button.
Info window reports an 'unknown' group, but if i check using Terminal, the group is the same as the owner.
Here the same. I think for me a installer for an tiger app, which i installed in leopard, caused this behavior. I'm pretty sure which one could be the troublemaker.
-But it's also possible that Google Desktop caused the problem, because my system gets sometimes overheated by it and then it seems to cause permissions trouble after a restart.
I already tried to change all apps *to the same* _user rights_, but i think that only made things worser (as expected).
In some folders i can create a folder and then no new folder in this one, or its only possibly to copy files out of it and not move out of it and so on...
furthermore it also let the disk utility slow down when i start it.
i now have also two +unknown groups+ in the info window one with +only read+ and the other with specialized (am not sure if in the english version its called also so, in german it's "angepasst")
By the way does someone know a easy way to learn which folder should have which rights? I'm a little troubled why sometimes its unknown and other thimes its admin, and system and rarely its my _user name_. i also wonder why there are on some files _two unknown_ with _different rights_.

Unable to change permissions when connecting over SMB

As of OS 10.9, SMB2 is the default protocol when connecting two Macs running 10.9. Unfortunately, SMB2 seems to be half-baked at this time. Among the issues I've encountered, one of the more vexing ones is that it does not seem to be possible to change permissions on a remote file or directory over SMB. In Finder, the permissions section simply says "you have custom access" regardless of the file/folder's actual permissions. Even if I have full read/write access to the file/folder, I have no way to change its permissions.
chmod and chown also don't work. They don't report an error – they simply don't do anything when I run them on remote files.
If I connect to the same system via AFP, everything works fine and I can change permissions in Finder, and via chmod.
Is anyone else seeing this behavior? Are permissions just broken under SMB2?

So the background to this situation:
1. The user had OS 10.6.8 installed on one volume, while his actual users home folders stored on a second volume, this is fine but can sometimes cause issues during/post upgrade to 10.7
2. The user upgraded to 10.7 and while his home folders were still being accessed, he no longer had permission to change or modify them.
3. The user downgraded to 10.6.4 again which broke the link for his users completely.
4. In an attempt to change the permissions for his information he had the (common) mistake of changing the permissions of his root level of his drive, this did several things, in addition to negatively effecting his OS, it also locked the drive mount points in his (hidden) /Volumes/ folder.
5. the steps taken to help rectify this issue:
A. Open Terminal.
B. TYPE:
chmod -N /
chmod 1775 /
chown root:admin /
C. Reboot computer
D. Open Disk Utility.
E. Repair permissions on the boot volume.
F. Also the following commands were run on her second drive to allow him access to his stuff again:
sudo chflags -R nouchg /path to drive/
chmod -R 775 /path to drive/
chmod -RN /path to drive/
chown -R username:staff /path to drive/
Once the permissions repair is complete the Users can be readded to the System Preferences>Accounts pane and the paths to home directories located in his second drive using the "Advanced Options..." section, but due to the time the permissions repair was going to take this step will be posted tomorrow.
Also each user will require Terminal commands to make the permissions unique for each user: (this must be done PRIOR to the users being added in System Preferences>Accounts.
chmod -N /
chmod 1775 /
chown root:admin /
sudo chflags -R nouchg /path to home folder/
sudo chmod -R 775 /path to home folder/
sudo chmod -RN /path to home folder/
sudo chown -R username:staff /path to home folder/
EE

"Get Info" and change permissions

Since I installed Leopard – when I create a file in PhotoShop and save it. When I go to reopen it – it will not let me. I have to go to “Get Info” and change permissions to “read and write” to everybody each time. I also have to from time to time have to go to “Get Info” in application and change permissions to get them to boot. Is there a fix?

Where are you saving these files? When you open an Info Window to the file you just created in Photoshop, what names are listed? The top entry should be your username with Read&Write privs. The middle entry should be either staff, (unknown) or your username with Read Only privs. The last entry should be everyone with Read Only privs.
Also, save a file to your Desktop (name it foo) and see if the problem still happens. If it does, launch Terminal and type:
ls -lde ~/Desktop
ls -le ~/Deskop/foo
paste the spew from that into a reply and we'll try to see whats going on.

Changing Permissions

I cannot update my iPod Touch applications, or download content from the iTunes store because this notice appears.
"You don't have write access for your iTunes media folder or a folder within it. Change permissions (in the Finder) and then choose Store > Check For Available Downloads."
I appreciate it if someone can tell me what to do. Thank you.

The contents of the /Home/Music/iTunes/ folder should all be:
Owner=you with r/w privileges
Group=admin with r/w privileges
Everyone with r/o privileges
Check the items in your iTunes folder as well as the iTunes folder itself to be sure they have the above privileges. In particular check the Mobile Applications folder since that is the one associated with Touch apps. To check select an item and Press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. The info you want is displayed in the Ownership and Sharing pane at the bottom.
Or you can make a wholesale change to the entire structure as follows:
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and enter the following at the command line prompt:
sudo chown -R yourusername:admin
Put a space immediately after "admin" and then drag the /Home/Music/iTunes/ folder into the Terminal window. Press RETURN. You will be asked to enter your admin password which will not be echoed. Substitute your actual account username for "yourusername." The punctuation between "yourusername" and "admin" is a colon. The command line is case sensitive. You can also copy the above command line and paste it at the prompt.

Repair user folder Permissions using terminal

Disk utility won't repair ownership & permmisions in the root user folder. I did a transfer of apps from my old Tibook and something went wrong. Some of my folders list "Owner" as unkown etc. I had this issue a few years back when restoring from a cloned drive, and someone on this forum suggested a Terminal command to reset my user folder back to defaults with the proper ownership and that worked! Unfortunately I can't remember the command line ("sudo chown...something like that). Changing permissions on each folder and file using the "get info" command is too tedious. Thanks for any help.
MBP 17in 2.33ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)
TiBook 667 Mac OS X (10.3.7)
TiBook 667 Mac OS X (10.3.7)

Since the cursor advanced to the next line after entering each command, and no error message was returned, it sounds like the commands worked.
The Get Info panel is sometimes slow to reflect permissions changes. Try control-option-clicking Finder's Dock icon and select Relaunch. See if that kick-starts the Get Info permissions report.
You can verify that everything changed correctly by typing this into a Terminal window:
ls -laR ~ > ~/Desktop/list.txt
That will create a file on your desktop called list.txt. Open it with TextEdit. It will list every file and folder in your home directory. If your username is listed as the owner of everything then it worked correctly.

Changing Permissions after reinstall

I had to reinstall Leopard 10.5 on my MacPro when it would not boot and disk utility could not recover the boot disk. Now, all my data drives are read only! I can change permissions on a file-by-file basis, but that will take forever. Is there a batch command that will allow me to change the permissions on all the files in a folder or volume?
As an old Linux/Unix hand, I tried using chmod -R from the Terminal Window, but without success.

RevCurmudgeon wrote:
I had to reinstall Leopard 10.5 on my MacPro when it would not boot and disk utility could not recover the boot disk. Now, all my data drives are read only! I can change permissions on a file-by-file basis, but that will take forever. Is there a batch command that will allow me to change the permissions on all the files in a folder or volume?
chmod -R is the correct command for changing permissions recursively but what you likely only need to change the permissions on the top level of the drives.
try the following.
run the following terminal commands (copy and paste, please)
sudo chflags 0 /volumes/*
sudo chmod a+rx /volumes/*
you'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal.
As an old Linux/Unix hand, I tried using chmod -R from the Terminal Window, but without success.

I Changed permissions for every enclosed folder in my Library (not Home)

I wanted to change permissions on a fiie in my root Library (not Home Library) and clicked apply to enclosed items for the entire Library folder. Once I realized what happened (after the fact) I tried to repair permissions but things aren't working right obviously. I have a backup of the Library on my Time Machine drive that is before the snafu.
Is is possible to restore just this Library folder, and if I restored just this folder using Time Machine would it also restore the permissions as they were before I screwed up.
I'm backing up the altered Library folder to another drive just to be safe if I do need to restore.
Always learning,
Thanks
Message was edited by: Thor Stevens

Thor Stevens wrote:
I wanted to change permissions on a fiie in my root Library (not Home Library) and clicked apply to enclosed items for the entire Library folder. Once I realized what happened (after the fact) I tried to repair permissions but things aren't working right obviously. I have a backup of the Library on my Time Machine drive that is before the snafu.
Is is possible to restore just this Library folder, and if I restored just this folder using Time Machine would it also restore the permissions as they were before I screwed up.
no, that's not possible because many of those items are in use while you are booted normally. you need to do a full system restore from TM from before you did this. from your last post you seem to be doing just that. and in the future NEVER ever use "apply to enclosed items" on ANY system created folders. that applies btw to things like your home folder, the library in your home folder, your desktop folder etc. use it only on folders you made yourself. apart from messing up permissions on system files like those in the root library, many system created folders like your home folder have hidden ACLs and using 'apply to enclosed items" propagates those ACLs to everything inside.
I'm backing up the altered Library folder to another drive just to be safe if I do need to restore.
Always learning,
Thanks
Message was edited by: Thor Stevens

ITunes no longer loads after updating to Windows 8.1. I have tried every corrective step I've found on the web (reinstall, copy files, change permissions, etc.) nothing helps. Has anyone heard if Apple is working on fix?

Itunes does not launch after updating to Windows 8.1. I've tried every suggestion I can find on web (reinstall, copy files from other directories, change permissions, etc.). Nothing works. At best I can get the licensing agreement to show and then nothing. Has anyone heard if a fix is in the works?

Hi 3backpacker3,
It sounds like you are on the right track in troubleshooting this issue. If you are having launch issues, you may find the following article helpful:
iTunes for Windows Vista or Windows 7: Troubleshooting unexpected quits, freezes, or launch issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1717
Regards,
- Brenden

External Hard Drives Changing Permissions to Read Only

Three of my USB external hard drives have suddenly changed to read only. One of the times I was trying to transfer/back-up the files from one drive that had changed to read only to another external. Suddenly the second drive changed permissions. Then after plugging a third external, that drive changed permissions. They all were working perfectly fine with my computer and I have only been using them on MACS. Any explanations? Could there be something wrong with my USB ports? Is it possible to have a virus of some sort?
Thank you!

In disk utility I had a look. I cannot verify or set permission (greyed out). The data coming back from info. How can I change this??
Name : FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G1 Media
Type : Disk
Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Disk Identifier : disk2
Media Name : FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G1 Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 560A48A291F9
Device Tree : /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@3:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
Location : External
Total Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.072.933.376 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 0
Name : NieuwVolume
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk2s1
Mount Point : /Volumes/NieuwVolume
File System : Windows NT File System (NTFS)
Connection Bus : USB
Device Tree : /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@3:1
Writable : No
Universal Unique Identifier : C7B58C48-D6BC-4078-9DAE-CB125901A4D6
Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.070.288.384 Bytes)
Free Space : 127,1 GB (136.438.530.048 Bytes)
Used : 171,0 GB (183.631.757.312 Bytes)
Number of Files : 85.578
Number of Folders : 0
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : No
Can Be Formatted : No
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 1

Changing permissions in terminal

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