Disk Utility & Repair Disk Permissions & Unknown User on External Seagate

I have a new iMac running Leopard and don't do stupid things to my mac. I have a couple external Seagate Freeagent drives but 1 of them is giving me a little trouble. So I figure, I'll try to repair disk permissions on it but the problem is when I go into Disk Utility, the Repair Disk Permissions option is NOT available. It's there, I just can't select it; it's grayed out. Why? I'm an admin! The other externals have this option available but not this one, so I'm not really sure what to do. I've about 300gb of family movies on it that I'd rather not wipe out just to be able to do a disk permission repair.
Whenever I do a command+i on the drive I do see an UNKNOWN user but this article, http://www.pcworld.com/article/145425-1/quickand_easy_folder_sharing_in105.html, leads me to believe that Apple hasn't done jack squat to allow us to fix the problem.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks in advance!

mrpeepers wrote:
I don't think that statement is true.
I have 3 externals and can repair disk permission on all but 2. All my externals are for storage purposes and non have OSX installed, so that fact that I can repair disk permissions on them sort of contradicts what you say, however, the effectiveness of running a repair disk permission on a drive that doesn't have OSX may be nothing.
I don't know how you manage to repair permissions on externals without system files on them but what I said is quite true. Repair permissions ONLY checks permissions of system files against the database of correct permissions. It wouldn't know what to do with any other files and never touches them. It should also not be possible on non OS X drives. I've never seen it enabled on any of my external or secondary drives. I really wonder why and how it was enabled on your external drives.
I did have Tiger installed for 3 months before I got Leopard, but my externals have known nothing but Leopard.
That doesn't matter. the ownership of files on your external were set in Tiger and it remains in leopard. that's what causes the "unknown" user to show up.
The problem I'm having with one of the drives is that starting yesterday it's having difficulties mounting. Sometimes I restart the computer and the drive doesn't show. So in order to get it to show, I have to power down the external (which is and appears to be running) and then power it back up, and if that doesn't work, usually reseating the USB works.
Then again... My problems started happening after I installed CandyBar and applied some folder changes. I have since dumped it.
whatever problems you have with that external they have absolutely nothing to do with Candy bar. all candy bar does is change a few icon files on your main hard drive. that can have no effect on mountability of anything.
This sounds to me like a hardware problem with your external. the drive could be failing. the USB bus could be failing either on the drive or on the computer. One thing you could do is check to see if there are any firmware upgrades for that drive. Look at the manufacturer's website. also try testing the drive with another computer if you can.
On another note... Anyone use CandyBar and NOT have any problems or really like it? Maybe it was just a coincidence.
yes, I use it and REALLY like it. no problems whatsoever.

Similar Messages

Query re permissions / unknown user or object?

Hi.
I have a query / permissions issue that I don't understand. On one of our sites, when you look at the permissions for any directory on the Novell Server it shows an extra permission that i've not seen on any of our other sites, please see the picture.
permissions.png
It's the one called -Vol1: that I don't understand i'm logged in as the admin for the tree and when I try to change any of the permissions for this -Vol1: thing it comes back and says I don't have the permissions to make any changes. We have filr as well and it will not work on this site, and seems to also complain about errors with this -Vol1: as if it's a user not Volume 1 itself, and I don't understand what it is, how I get rid off it, or if it should be there! Every directory on the server has this with permissions and admin cannot change their permissions.
Anyone got any ideas?

On Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:26:01 +0000, booktrunk wrote:
> I have a query / permissions issue that I don't understand. On one of
> our sites, when you look at the permissions for any directory on the
> Novell Server it shows an extra permission that i've not seen on any of
> our other sites, please see the picture.
What operating system? What service pack / patch installs?
David Gersic dgersic_@_niu.edu
Knowledge Partner http://forums.netiq.com
Please post questions in the forums. No support provided via email.
If you find this post helpful, please click on the star below.

Verify disk permissions

Hi,
Can anyone tell me why I keep getting this when I run "Verify Disk Permissions"?:
Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
Permissions differ on "private/var/spool/cups/cache/rss", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are drwxrwxr-x .
This is why i think my computer is slowing down as well. it was working fine before i installed the brother multi-function printer.
disk utility repairs the permissions but when i restart the comp and run disk repair it comes up again. this is following up from an earlier post from beth.

I also agree with Kappy, it's nothing to worry about and should have no effect on how fast your iMac runs. Although if you installed the printer software off an out of date disk you would do well to go to the Support website for that printer and download the latest 10.5 drivers.

Disk Utility and Repair Disk Permissions

Using Yosemite 10.10.3 , an this is what I see every time I run the Disk Utility. Then I select 'Repair Disk Permissions' but nothing ever gets fixed. Whats the point of the 'Repair' button if nothing ever gets repaired?? Should I not believe the results of 'Verify Disk" either??
Verifying permissions for “Macintosh HD”Group differs on “Library/Printers/InstalledPrinters.plist”; should be 80; group is 0.Permissions differ on “Library/Printers/InstalledPrinters.plist”; should be -rw-rw-rw- ; they are -rw-r--r-- .User differs on “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”; should be 0; user is 244.Group differs on “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”; should be 0; group is 244.

You can safely ignore those.
Mac OS X Disk utilities Repair Disc Permissions messages that you can safely ignore
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203172

Why isn't Disk Utility clear after "Repair Disk Permissions"?

Having used my computer for several days I decided to use Disk Utility to “Repair Disk Permissions” after a few hours of use.
2008-11-29 08:30:17 -0800: Disk Utility started.
2008-11-29 08:30:24 -0800: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2008-11-29 08:30:24 -0800: Reading permissions database.
2008-11-29 08:30:24 -0800: Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
2008-11-29 08:43:29 -0800: Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r----- .
2008-11-29 08:48:26 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800:
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800: Permissions repair complete
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800:
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800:
I shut down the computer, turned off its power for 1 minute and restarted. I initiated Disk Utility once again.
2008-11-29 09:16:42 -0800: Disk Utility started.
2008-11-29 09:20:55 -0800: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2008-11-29 09:20:55 -0800: Reading permissions database.
2008-11-29 09:20:55 -0800: Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
2008-11-29 09:38:47 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800:
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800: Permissions repair complete
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800:
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800:
When Disk Utility was finished, I clicked on “Clear History” and reran “Repair Disk Permissions.”
2008-11-29 09:42:01 -0800: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2008-11-29 09:42:01 -0800: Reading permissions database.
2008-11-29 09:42:01 -0800: Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800:
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800: Permissions repair complete
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800:
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800:
Now everything seems clear.
My question...
Why did I initially see:
2008-11-29 08:43:29 -0800: Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r----- .
2008-11-29 08:48:26 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
and why after restarting should I end up with only
2008-11-29 09:38:47 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
and after “Clear History” and rerunning Disk Utility why is everything clear until I start using the computer again?
I’ve had it explained that “Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26” is not meaningful, but I’d like to know WHY it happens. I’d also like to know why “ Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r----- .” initially appears.
Thank you,
ZTIWYM3ZUI

As a casual "Apple Discussions" user it hadn't occurred to me that if a question had been answered previously, it should never be asked again.
It's not that. It's because the problem's been beaten to death over the past fourteen months, since Apple shipped Leopard, that most consider it common knowledge, no matter where one's been visiting or how often. Every Apple/Macintosh related website has addressed the never ending issue. Finally, since the forums Help file says:
*I have a question or issue—how do I search for answers?*
+It's possible that your question or issue has already been answered by other members so do a search before posting a question. On most Apple Discussions pages, you'll find a Search Discussions box in the upper right corner. Enter a search term (or terms) in the field and press Return. Your results will appear as a list of links to posts below the Search Discussions Content pane.+
+You can also refine your search by using the options in the Search Discussions Content pane. Click the Search Tips link for help with our search features. You can streamline your results by restricting your search terms by category or forum, specifying a date range, or searching for posts by username. You can also search the User Tips Library.+
Maybe that should be retitled: *+I have a question or issue—how do I resolve it?+*
Just out of curiosity, I wonder if any of these exceptional people can figure out my signature.
ZTIWYM3ZUI - "time is what you make—use it" or something of that nature.

Disk utility repair permissions stops altogether

I tried running Disk Utility Repair permissions and received a grey message box saying it stopped repairing permissions because of the following error:
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
This same error message was repeated in the usual information box that disk utility uses to provide detail about what it is doing.
I believe the problem occurred because I selected Macintosh HD and added another user (myself) to read/write in the disk permission section of the information window, and I also applied that to all enclosed items. I did this in the first place because of repeated attempts and failuire to install the latest version of skype into my applications folder (being told that I didn't have enough permissions to complete the overwrite task). When I tried verifying the disk I received the error message "ERROR: could not freeze volume permissions denied"
I switched users to a specific administrator account that I reserve for troubleshooting, but got the same result when I tried running disk utility.
As a not unrelated issue when I attach my ipod touch, itunes says that it cannot recognize this ipod, then after about the third time simply doesn't acknowledge my itouch exists.
everything was working well until i did this large change permissions operation.
So does anyone have any idea what I have done (wrong) and how I can fix it?
thanks
John

John Fountain wrote:
I believe the problem occurred because I selected Macintosh HD and added another user (myself) to read/write in the disk permission section of the information window, and I also applied that to all enclosed items.
Uh-oh. You completely trashed your whole system by doing that. Boot up from your Leopard DVD and restore that last Time Machine backup that was made before you made that mistake. If you don't have any backups you will have to reinstall Leopard.
I did this in the first place because of repeated attempts and failuire to install the latest version of skype into my applications folder (being told that I didn't have enough permissions to complete the overwrite task).
When that happens, just trash the old application first, then drag in the new one.
When I tried verifying the disk I received the error message "ERROR: could not freeze volume permissions denied"
I switched users to a specific administrator account that I reserve for troubleshooting, but got the same result when I tried running disk utility.
Changing permissions on the HD and applying to enclosed items hosed your whole system. That's what's causing all your problems. It's doubtful that you will be able to repair it. Restore your system from backup, or reinstall.

Anyone clean their mac using the disk utility using the repair disk permissions??

anyone clean their mac using the disk utility using the repair disk permissions??

No. Threads don't hurt anything. If your computer is not functioning properly perhaps you need to try some basic maintenance. Let's start by having you do this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Next, try booting into Safe Mode then immediately restart normally. Safe mode is going to take a while so be patient. It's slow.
Next, create a new user account. Log out of your account then log into the new account. Try using iPhoto and the publishing button. Do they work now?
If you still have a problem, then do the following. If you don't want to go through the above then just start with the following and forget the others above.
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Installing a trial version of the Illustrator and InDesign App in Creative Cloud on my Mac is impossible. Keep getting 'Installation failed' notices. More information gives 0 fatal error(s), 0 error(s). Already repaired disk permissions in Disk Utility bu

Installing a trial version of the Illustrator and InDesign App in Creative Cloud on my Mac is impossible. Keep getting 'Installation failed' notices. More information gives 0 fatal error(s), 0 error(s). Already repaired disk permissions in Disk Utility but nothing seems to work. Exit code: 7.

Hi Maarton,
Please follow the link to resolve the issue: Errors "Exit Code: 6," "Exit Code: 7" | CS5, CS5.5
-Ankit

Repairing disk permissions from single user mode

I accidentally changed the disk permissions on my Macintosh HD to "none" for everyone, except system and admin, who both still have read/write/exec privileges. Now, my Mac won't boot up. What can I do to fix this from single user mode or verbose mode?

Hi,
if you reboot your mac and press Command -R you can start in recovery mode and repair the permissions.
here you can find how to proceed http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Repair Disk Permissions utility stalled - I have read the knowledge base

I have researched the knowledge base and search for posts on this and cannot find answer: Running 10.4 at the latest version. used the original install 1 disc I received with Tiger to repair disc permissions (like Apple support has told me to do in the past, but my current research said I do not need to do this unless certain parameters are met, and none of the parameters applied, but oh well, I am here anyway). Cold Boot from the original install disc 1 and slected the start up disk I use (I only have one start up disc/drive). Did a repair disc permissions and got a long running routine that reporting a lot of fixes, then the utility has stalled -- no progress on the progress bar. I "stopped" the process using the "stop repair" button (three times). The log reflected the utility stopped, but the progress bar still is blue and not moving (for a couple of hours). When I go to quity File >Disk Utility, it warns me that Disk Utility is running and this may make my system unstable/unsuable.
QUESTION: CAN I JUST QUIT DISK UTILITY AND NOT HAVE ANY ADVERSE AFFECT ON MY IMAC DRIVE?

Thanks for your advice, I still have an issue:
-after the first repair disk permission "stalled" process, I exited Disk Utility and cold booted the machine after I had disconnected all external devices other than the original iMac keyboard
-obtained the combo patch for 10.4.7 from the Apple download site (it had already been installed but I reinstalled per your advice)
-re-applied the combo patch and then did another cold boot
-ran Disk Utility from the original Tiger install #1 disk, and then selected "repair disk permissions" for my start up disk (I only have one)
- process ran for 10 minutes or so then gave the following error message: "Disk Utility Error: Disk Utility has lost its connection with disk utility management tool and cannot continue. Please quit disk utility and re-launch disk utility"
- I pushed the "stop disk permission repair" button, then quit disk utility, then cold booted the machine again.
-re-applied combo patch as above, then cold booted the machine
-ran disk utility from the original iMac install #1 disk, ran "repair disk permissions", and then received the same error message as above.
- I then just quit Disk Utility and cold booted the machine again and went about my business. There does not seem to be any problem with the machine (was not before, but I ran repair permissions thinkging this was a routine maintenance taks that should be run)
- in my prior search of the knowledge base, I found the following information about repair disk permissions:
Location: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607495&#607495
How often should I Repair Permissions?
You do not need to Repair Permissions on a regular basis.
There are only three occasions you need to do this:
1. When you have just installed something that required you to run an Installer, rather than just copying some software to a folder. This should be done for both Apple and non-Apple software.
2. When you have been working on your OS X files or folders while booted from OS 9, or remotely connected via a non-OS X machine, since OS 9 and other systems do not handle OS X's permissions correctly.
3. The other case is if your system is behaving strangely, when you should run Disk Repair from your CD followed by Repair Permissions. This is just to eliminate these things before going on to further trouble-shooting.
Otherwise you can happily forget about Permissions!"
So, it would appear I do not need to do anything else; the machine seems to be working properly. Is there anything else I need to do? thanks for the help! Bob

Disk Utility - Verify Disk Permissions / Repair

I run Disk Utility > Verify Disk Permissions with this rsult:
Verify permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Permissions differ on "usr/share/derby", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
The following repair was successful.
A few minutes later I run Verify Disk Permissions again with the SAME result:
Verify permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Permissions differ on "usr/share/derby", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
What does it mean and how can I stop this error?
Thanks!

There is nothing in that message that requires repairing. That is why it keeps showing up.
The permission database has to be updated every time the system is updated. If they miss a change that they have made in the system, it will get flagged as you see, but doesn't mean anything is wrong.
That KnowledgeBase article also must be updated to reflect the things they missed.
All that message is saying is that the directory derby is now replaced with a link to another directory (the l vs the d). However, mine doesn't have a link. Did you install anything that might have updated derby?
If you open Terminal and enter this code, can you post the line that has derby on it?ls -al /usr/share/
I'm repairing permissions now to see what pops up for me, but that will take a little while.
Edit: I looked into the Derby directory and Derby is a Relational Database Management System used by Apache. So, did you install something that modified Apache, PHP, mySQL or something like that? It might have altered the link.
Message was edited by: Barney-15E

Messed up permissions, then fixed but now disk utility repair perm greyed..

So I had changed ownership and permissions on an eternal drive, then couldnt see it so I typed the following in terminal to fix:
chmod 775 "/Volumes/volumename/"
That worked, but now when I go into disk utility, both the verify and the repair disk permissions are greyed out on that drive.
Any ideas?

That worked, but now when I go into disk utility, both the verify and the repair disk permissions are greyed out on that drive.
Those commands will only be available if the drive has a bootable Mac OS X system. If the drive is set to ignore ownership or permissions, select it in the Finder, choose Get Info from the File menu, and turn the option off.
(30708)

Disk Utility & System Library permissions repair

I repair disk permissions rather frequently with Disk Utility - no specific reason, just maybe slow with rotating beachball.
Almost always it appears that every single library/systems/preferences/.... are repaired.
Any reason/consequence of this activity?

pwwwayne wrote:
I repair disk permissions rather frequently with Disk Utility - no specific reason, just maybe slow with rotating beachball.
That's probably not helping anything. Read this:
http://www.macworld.com/article/133684/2008/06/maintenance_intro.html
Almost always it appears that every single library/systems/preferences/.... are repaired.
Known issue with Leopard... there are a bunch of messages that will pop up every single time.

Cannot, View or Repair Disk Permissions with disk utility,

Hey,
I can't repair disk permissions using Disk Utility.
I can only repair them using the boot disk and I'm just worried that something somewhere is corrupted or gone irky (Technical computer term).
Thanks.

Installed Lion on my 27" iMac (mid 2010) and everyday since it shuts down after start up.
Called Apple they said repair permissions, after safe boot. Thats works but only for the next restart.
When I shutdown and start up the next day I have to go thru the same process.
Anybody else have this problem?

Repair Disk Permissions corrupted a secondary user account

I've read various threads on this topic but none that have solved my issue.
I have 4 accounts on my iMac. Account 1 is admin, Account 2 is "staff" and had access to almost everything, Account 3 is guest, Account 4 is for Apple TV streaming so we don't leave one of our accounts open while entertaining guests.
I was doing something that request that I run Repair Disk Permissions, which I did from the admin account. After doing so, Account 2 is pretty much read only: can't delete files off of the desktop, can't open certain applications, can't sync iphone to itunes, and many other little issues. One of the issues during iPhone sync is that it cannot write to address book <which there are many threads out there on just this as well>.
It seems to me that it's a permissions issue but repairing disk permission isn't helping, as that's what seems to have corrupted the account in the first place.
What is the most efficient way to resolve this? Should I create a new user account and move all the files over? If I do that, will iTunes sync ok with the iPhone or will it not recognize it and ask to wipe the data from the iPhone? What is the best sure-fire way to migrate Account 2 to a new user account and not lose anything in iTunes/iPhoto and still be able to sync with iPhone.
Thanks!

Open the Terminal in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and run the following:
sudo chmod -R a+rX
followed by a space. Next, drag the folder into the Terminal window, press Enter, and type your password; nothing will appear in the Terminal while the password is being typed. If you want to be able to make changes to the folder as well, use rwX instead of rX. You may need to log out and back in for the changes to be recognized. To turn it off, use go-rwX after the -R.
(21396)

Disk Utility & Repair Disk Permissions & Unknown User on External Seagate

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