Re-setting Read&Write permissions on external drive?

I have a 40GB external drive on which I backed up my "Documents" on a Windows machine (now discarded). Now that I switched to a Mac (thank God) I would like to use the "old" external drive, but I only have "Read Only" permissions and no lock icon to unlock and reset the disk permissions.
Would greatly appreciate advice on making this disk writable again. Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Veit

Select and right (control) click on the disk icon for the drive. From the contextual menu, select +Get Info+. At the bottom of the info window is +Sharing and Permissions+ where you can change permissions.
However, if the Windows drive is using NTFS, you will only be able to Read it. Mac OS X cannot Write to an NTFS-formatted drive. If this is your situation, you should copy off your valuable data on the drive and reformat it as +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ using Disk Utility (Erase tab). Be sure to select the entire DRIVE in the sidebar, and not the volume indented below the drive.

Similar Messages

Itunes ignoring Read & Write permissions on external drive?

Hi,
similar but different to other reported problems:
1. I got in a mess with my library and copied a load of folders from a backup into my itunes folder, which is on an external firewire drive, which was previously fine.
2. Now I can't change info in any tunes and can't import anything.
3. I have selected the drive and subfolders, changing the permissions to Read & write for me, staff, everyone. I have said 'Apply to enclosed items' each time. Whether the drive has 'Ignore ownership' ticked or not makes no difference I think.
4. Itunes still won't let me change or import.
What to do?
thanks in advance...
Ben
Message was edited by: bennnn - added note about Ignore ownership

A bit of a long shot, but I wonder if the iTunes library file might be corrupt. You might as a test try dragging the iTunes library file to the desktop and relaunching iTunes, which will get it to create a new, blank library file. Then import a CD and see if it's successful. If so, then you know that the old library file is indeed corrupt. If no improvement, just put the old library file back, replacing the newly-created one.

HT1549 How do I read write to an external drive? I am under admin account and cannot read write to any folder on the external drive.

I have a Mac Mini with Mavericks installed, as well as a PC running Windows 7. I want to be able to read write from both computers to an external drive on the Mac. I created 2 folders on the drive and named them Movies, and TV Shows. The content of those folders are the respective files. I set up both folders to be shared on the Mac under system preferences, and then mapped the drives on the PC. I also created a user account with admin privileges on the mac that matched my PC. I then copied a Music folder to the root drive instead of using external, and set up sharing as well. File Sharing is selected for all three folders, however the music folder is the only one which allows me to change the permissions to allow read write to everyone, or to create individual user accounts to connect with read write permissions. The options to add users or change permissions are simply grayed out for the two folders on the external drive, so not only can I not write from my PC, but I can’t even do it on the Mac with the administrative user logged in. The folder on the root drive is fine but I cannot make any changes to the external drive at all. Get info for any folder on drive shows read only. SMB and AFP are selected for all folders under options. I can access all three folders from PC, but can only add files to the Music folder. I cannot do anything from either computer to the folders on the external drive.

Try Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility - select the drive and run Repair Disk.

Read/write access on external drive set to none; can't see drive to change

I was learning about profiles and permissions and set the Read/write access on my external drive to none. I wanted to protect my guests from accidentally viewing private files. I thought I was doing it for that profile only, but now I can't see the drive to change it back. I have already tried using the disk utitility and re mounting the drive, but still cannot see the drive icon on the desktop or anywhere. I know the drive is okay because I can see it in disk utility but disk utility says the read/write access is none.
thanks for anyone that can advise me. I'm more of a PC expert, than a Mac expert.
Gary

Follow the instructions in this FAQ which are relevant to your situation; logging in as root is not needed.
(18945)

Need to set read/write permissions to ALL subfolders

So I have a clients folder created on the server, and workgroup with employees setup to access the shared clients folder. You can log onto it from outside, and access the folders. However they all need to be able to write as well; save files, move files, etc.
I have the permissions set for the workgroup to read/write on the clients root folder, but it only applies to that folder. Any folders underneath it dont take effect. And there are hundreds of folders and subfolders.
Obviously there must be an option so that i the permissions i set to the root clients folder are applied to ALL subfolders! How do i do it?!
Please and thanks!

Server Admin>File Sharing>Share Points, Permissions tab, click on the gear icon and select "Propagate Permissions..."

I can read but I can't write to an external drive - changing permissions

I can read but I can't write to an external drive.
How do I change permissions? None of the helps here on the discussions have helped.
Why would a computer company let me read files but not write? Hahaha. This is insane.
I have to write computer files for work. It's a project due this morning.
Man, I'm going to have to go back to PC.
Just need the compter to write files.

If it's formatted as NTFS, reformat it as MS-DOS, exFAT, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as desired.
If it's formatted as FAT32 or exFAT, use the Disk Utility's Repair Disk command on it.
If it's formatted as Mac OS Extended, click Authenticate and provide your administrator password, or change the permissions on that specific folder in its Get Info window.
(72460)

Can't change read-write permissions on DMG despite ownership

Hey there! So, I recently followed these instructions to create a 20 megabyte, 128-bit encrypted DMG on my hard drive in order to password-protect some confidential documents. I have had no problems opening the DMG or editing its contents, but today I discovered that I am unable to add, delete, or edit its contents, as I receive the following message: "The document "___" could not be saved as "___". The volume “Encrypted” is read only."
I'm able to mount the DMG and open the document, but I can't make any changes. First, I tried changing the permissions on the document itslef; I went to "Get Info," but I discovered that the Sharing & Permissions indicates I (the admin) should be able "Read & Write." I wanted to to tinker with this, so I clicked the lock icon at the bottom of Info and entered my password, but--mysteriously--I can't change the permissions settings, even when unlocked. I click, but nothing happens.
Same thing when I try to change permissions for the whole DMG. It says that I have "Read & Write" permissions, but I can't try messing with these settings even after unlocking.
Now, it's possible that at some point in the last couple of weeks I may have changed the setting of the document to "locked"--I honestly can't remember--but shouldn't I still be able to "unlock" it given my admin status? And even if I compromised that one file, why can't I save any new documents to the DMG?
Any ideas as to how I can return my DMG to true read-write status?
Thanks ever so much!
embr

Okay, so I figured it out, and it was an "Oh, duh!" moment. Figured I should explain for anyone else experiencing this problem.
The DMG was locked, but I couldn't see this or change it while it was mounted. So, if you encounter this problem, simply eject the disk, then navigate to its location in Finder, Get Info, and uncheck the "locked" option. That did the trick for me!
embr

Read/Write Permissions for FAT32 SD card.

Hi all, after a lot of searching in similar threads I have found no answers to my question.
I have a MobileLite usb drive that takes various sizes of SD cards. I have inserted into it a 256MB regular sized SD card (that which you would find in cameras). I plugged it in to add a file to a folder I had labeled "apps" and the file was clicked and dragged into the folder on the SD card no problem. I disconnected it (safely) and then reconnected it to add another file. Now it is saying that the SD card is read only.
1) The switch on the SD card is NOT set to lock so I know thats not the problem.
2) I backed up all the files onto my desktop, and then went into Disk Utility to see if I could reformat it, but it wont let me.
3) Under "get info" there are no options to change the read/write permissions.
It is to my understanding that FAT32 should be native for both PC and MAC so I dont know whats going on here. Further more, its troubling me that I was able to write onto the SD card, and after unplugging and plugging back in, I now only have read access.
Any takes to this problem? Thanks!

You see that's the thing, I'm not using it for a picture camera. The camera prob wouldnt read the card anyway. I'm using it as a storage device for my Nintendo Wii, I have files that I put on there to use as channels for my Wii Home Screen.

How do you create default Read/Write Permissions for more than 1 user?

My wife and I share an iMac, but use separate User accounts for separate mail accounts, etc.
However, we have a business where we both need to have access to the same files and both have Read/Write permissions on when one of us creates a new file/folder.
By default new files and folders grant Read/Write to the creator of the new file/folder, and read-only to the Group "Staff" in our own accounts or "Wheel" in the /Users/Public/ folder, and read-only to Everyone.
We are both administrators on the machine, and I know we can manually override the settings for a particular file/folder by changing the permissions, but I would like to set things up so that the Read/Write persmissions are assigned for both of us in the folder for that holds our business files.
It is only the 2 of us on the machine, we trust each other and need to have complete access to these many files that we share. I have archiveing programs running so I can get back old versions if we need that, so I'm not worried about us overwriting the file with bad info. I'm more concerned with us having duplicates that are not up to date in our respective user accounts.
Here is what I have tried so far:
1. I tried to just set the persmissions of the containing folder with us both having read/write persmissions, and applied that to all containing elements.
RESULT -> This did nothing for newly created files or folders, they still had the default permissions of Read/Write for the creating User, Read for the default Group, Read for Everyone
2. I tried using Sandbox ( http://www.mikey-san.net/sandbox/ ) to set the inheritance of the folder using the methods laid out at http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=93742
RESULT -> Still this did nothing for newly created files or folders, they still had the default permissions of Read/Write for the creating User, Read for the default Group, Read for Everyone
3. I have set the umask to 002 ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2202 ) so that new files and folders have a default permission that gives the default group Read/Write permissions. This unfortunately changes the default for the entire computer, not just a give folder.
I then had to add wife's user account to the "Staff" group because for some reason her account was not included in that. I think this is due to the fact that her account was ported into the computer when we upgraded, where as mine was created new. I read something about that somewhere, but don't recall where now. I discovered what groups we were each in by using the Terminal and typing in "groups username" where username was the user I was checking on.
I added my wife to the "Staff" group, and both of us to the "Wheel" group using the procedures I found at
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8765421&#8765421
RESULT -> I could create a new file using TextEdit and save it anywhere in my account and it would have the permissions: My Username - Read/Write, "Staff" or "Wheel" (depending on where I saved it) - Read/Write, Everyone - Read Only, as expected from the default umask.
I could then switch over to my wife's account, open the file, edited it, and save it, but then the permissions changed to: Her Username - Read/Write, (unknown) - Read/Write, Everyone - Read Only.
And when I switch back to my account, now I can open the file, but I can't save it with my edits.
I'm at my wits end with this, and I can believe it is impossible to create a common folder that we can both put files in to have Read/Write permissions on like a True Shared Folder. Anyone who has used windows knows what you can do with the Shared folder in that operating system, ie. Anyone with access can do anything with those files.
So if anyone can provide me some insight on how to accomplish what I really want to do here and help me get my system back to remove the things it seems like I have screwed up, I greatly appreciate it.
I tried to give as detailed a description of the problem and what I have done as possible, without being to long winded, but if you need to know anything else to help me, please ask, I certainly won't be offended!
Thanks In Advance!
Steve

Thanks again, V.K., for your assistance and especially for the very prompt responses.
I was unaware that I could create a volume on the HD non-destructively using disk utility. This may then turn out to be the better solution after all, but I will have to free up space on this HD and try that.
Also, I was obviously unaware of the special treatment of file creation by TextEdit. I have been using this to test my various settings, and so the inheritance of ACLs has probably been working properly, I just have been testing it incorrectly. URGH!
I created a file from Word in my wife's account, and it properly inherited the permissions of the company folder: barara - Custom, steve - Custom, barara - Read/Write, admin - Read Only, Everyone - Read Only
I tried doing the chmod commands on $TMPDIR for both of us from each of our accounts, but I still have the same behavior for TextEdit files though.
I changed the group on your shared folder to admin from wheel as you instructed with chgrp. I had already changed the umask to 002, and I just changed it back to 022 because it didn't seem to help. But now I know my testing was faulty. I will leave it this way though because I don't think it will be necessary to have it set to 002.
I do apparently still have a problem though, probably as a result of all the things I have tried to get this work while I was testing incorrectly with TextEdit.
I have just discovered that the "unknown user" only appears when I create the a file from my wife's account. It happens with any file or folder I create in her account, and it exists for very old files and folders that were migrated from the old computer. i.e. new and old files and foders have permissions: barara - Read/Write, unknown user - Read Only, Everyone - Read Only
Apparently the unknown user gets the default permissions of a group, as the umask is currently set to 022 and unknown user now gets Read Only permissions on new items, but when I had umask set to 002, the unknown user got Read/Write permissions on new items.
I realize this is now taking this thread in a different direction, but perhaps you know what might be the cause of this and how to correct or at least know where to point me to get the answer.
Also, do you happen to know how to remove users from groups? I added myself and my wife to the Wheel group because that kept showing up as the default group for folders in /Users/Shared
Thanks for your help on this, I just don't know how else one can learn these little "gotchas" without assistance from people like you!
Steve

Is it possible to change the read/write permissions on a time machine back-up of iTunes? I need to restore it, but old version is locked....

Is it possible to change the read/write permissions on a time machine back-up of iTunes? I'm needing to restore it as my phone deleted half our playlists during sync & am not seeing a way to unlock the permissions. I have the current version unlocked, but can't seem to get the backed-up version. When I click on restore I get a pop-up that says iTunes can't be deleted as it is part of the OS. I'm not even trying to delete, just restore the old version. Any suggestions?

Hmmm, ok I'll give it a shot. I've always had the iTunes sync w/ my phone set up to only load selected playlists to the phone b/c there's a lot more in iTunes than I have room or desire for on my phone. A few months back I started having trouble w/ trying to sync everything & subsequently adding more to the phone than it could hold. The quickest thing at the time was to unclick the sync music option in iTunes so I could still backup the phone to the computer & not have a problem.
When I asked about it during one-to-one session shortly after, they advised me to delete the music off my phone & then re-sync it to the computer, run a backup of the phone & redownload the music to the phone. When I tried this it ended up deleting all my playlists (but not my husband's) from iTunes. Irritating, but I've been rebuilding the playlists since. I had also unclicked sync music again & an Apple person told me the most likely best fix was to delete & reload iTunes completely.
A few days ago I realized I hadn't backed up the phone to the computer in over a month so after deleting & reinstalling iTunes, & w/o changing anything (sync music was STILL unchecked) I ran a backup & my phone went from having 4 GB free space to being 2 GB over capacity due to iTunes trying to download the entire music library to the phone. I made a one-to-one appt again & it was suggested AGAIN that I delete all the music off my phone & then resync it to the computer & redownload the music. We did this (though a few random songs that had previously been purchased somehow remained on the phone), I got home, connected the phone & instead of the music that shows as 'on my device' disappearing from iTunes it just sat there, so, as the guy had told me I MIGHT have to do, I threw all those songs showing in iTunes as being on my phone, in the trash so that it was completely clear.
At this point I checked sync music, made sure the options were 'selected playlists only', checked the ones from my own list that I wanted (I usually have one playlist of comedians from my husband's folder that I also have on the phone, but didn't check it at this point). It uploaded all my stuff just fine, but for whatever reason when it saw that I wasn't uploading that comedy playlist any longer, it not only didn't upload it but proceeded to delete my husband's entire folder of playlists from iTunes. -_- I got on the phone w/ an Apple support person right away but he wasn't able to tell me anything .. basically said we'll have to rebuild everything. I asked about the possibility of using time machine, he said he's not qualified to answer that, so that's when I started looking around online & found, among others, the link I referenced a couple replies ago.
I hope this all makes sense. It's been a long-term issue so I'm trying to go from memory as I figured to begin w/ that I had just made a mistake somewhere, so didn't try to document anything. Now w/ it having happened a 2nd time, I'm not sure if it was 'user error' or something else.......

Essential read/write permissions

Hi there,
I hope I don't make a fool out of myself with my first question, but after several hours searching the internet (not sure how to name my problem) for answers I'm just gonna ask:
In our office we have several computers connected, each user can drop stuff in each others dropbox. ok. The problem starts with the permissions of the documents. For each document you have to set them to read/write for the staff, which is not difficult, but annoying. So here is my question: is there a way to tell programms eg TextEdit, PhotoShop,... to create all documents with read/write permissions for me AND the staff? Hope anyone has an idea.
littleMissNosy

Two days have passed since your initial post. Recalling reading something similar in the past, if you click on the link shown below, it should provide you with the technical means to achieve your request. Hope it works for you little Miss.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10863288#10863288

Granting read/write permissions on Oracle Server processes

Hi
I'm trying to set up a BFILE datatype in a table. I have created the directory and the current user has permissions to read and write to that folder. (The current user has the create any directory permission granted). The insert statement does not give an error but when I look at the table the BFILE column contains an error of <Value Error>.
I suspect it may be because the current user does not have server read/write permissions on the directory I'm using. Can anybody help me with a correcting this please?
Here is what I've used so far:
CREATE or replace DIRECTORY pic_dir AS 'c:\temp'
INSERT INTO picture (pic_id, filename)
VALUES (1, bfilename('pic_dir', 'image1.jpg'))

Many thanks for the reply.
I am using the procedure as below (formats better if copied into Notepad). Gives me an error of "ORA-22285: non-existent directory or file for FILEOPEN operation" referring to the line containing the DBMS_LOB.FILEOPEN command.
I suspect there is something wrong with the SELECT statement because I can get the procedure to run fine on the text file if I provide the BFILE location directly into the bfile_loc variable (as opposed to using the SELECT statement to retrieve it from the db).
I created a directory: CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY pic_dir AS 'C:\temp'
I then created a table: CREATE TABLE picture (pic_id NUMBER, filename BFILE)
Next I added a row: INSERT INTO picture VALUES(1, BFILENAME('pic_dir', 'testfile.txt'))
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE read_bfile IS
sep_char CONSTANT RAW(100) := UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_RAW(CHR(32));      --separating character (space)
end_file CONSTANT RAW(100) := UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_RAW(CHR(10));      --end of file character (new line)
bfile_loc BFILE;                               --pointer to BFILE
cur_pos NUMBER := 1;                          --current position in file
char_read BINARY_INTEGER := 0;                     --number of characters read
read_buff VARCHAR2(500);                          --read buffer
end_word NUMBER;                              --end of current word
ret_val BOOLEAN := FALSE;                         --return value
BEGIN
select filename into bfile_loc from picture where pic_id = 1;
DBMS_LOB.FILEOPEN(bfile_loc, dbms_lob.file_readonly);
LOOP
-- establish end of current word
end_word := DBMS_LOB.INSTR(bfile_loc, sep_char, cur_pos, 1);
-- process end-of-file
IF (end_word = 0) THEN
end_word := DBMS_LOB.INSTR(bfile_loc, end_file, cur_pos, 1);
char_read:= end_word - cur_pos - 1;
DBMS_LOB.READ(bfile_loc, char_read, cur_pos, read_buff);
dbms_output.put_line(UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(read_buff));
EXIT;
END IF;
-- read until end-of-file
char_read:= end_word - cur_pos;
DBMS_LOB.READ(bfile_loc, char_read, cur_pos, read_buff);
dbms_output.put_line(UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(read_buff));
cur_pos := cur_pos + char_read+ 1;
END LOOP;
DBMS_LOB.CLOSE(bfile_loc);
END;

Get Read/Write permissions of application

Hi,
I am developing one application by using FileConnection API. My requirement is,
Whenever user launch the application, Application will get the properties of user read data/user write data permission. if they set the permission like "Always Ask" then application will close otherwise application will launch.
For this, how can i get read/write permissions of application?. Please help in this query.
Thanks & Regards
Siva

Hi ,
As the FileConnection API is restricted and need permission.
You have to set the FileConnection permission into the JAD file. Depends upon the mobile it might be possible that you have to signed the MIDlet.
Ashish Garg

Read/Write permissions and saving prevented

Hi!
My hard drive failed last week, and while it was being replaced, the technician backed up the old one, replaced all my data onto the new one and upgraded me to 10.4.10, and then repaired permissions. He also replaced my keyboard, which had few to no letters painted on it (again). I'm the only user on this computer.
Most things seem to be working well, but so far I've found that I'm not allowed to access my address book at all -- I'm being 'told' I have no read/write permissions for address book. I am also not allowed to save anything (not print to .pdf, not anything from Appleworks, not from textedit) except email as drafts. I have found a way to get around some of it, by trying to save directly to the hard drive, then I get asked to authenticate with my password, I do and it OKs that individual file. This works maybe 90% of the time, but not always on the first try.
Oh, also I can't run anything in flash (I tried to go to a flash based website and it wouldn't work), and I was not able to download a flash player at all.
Do these issues go together at all? I'm nervous that if I try to fix something, I'll make it worse.
Thanks in advance for any ideas!
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.10)
iBook G4, iMac,

Hi Tttina, it sounds like permissions within your Home folder. To check, create a new account, name it "test" and see how your apps work in that User acct? (That will tell if your problem is systemwide or limited to your User acct.) This account is just for test, do nothing further with it.
Open System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" make it an admin account.
If that works, then repair the Permissions inside your Home folder:
• Navigate to YourHome/Library.
• Get Info (Command - i) on folders for apps you are having problems with.
• Open the "Ownership & permissions" disclosure triangle.
• Make sure you are the owner, with "read and write" access.
• Click on "apply to all"
• If this is correct, open the "Applications Support" folder and do the same procedure (Command+I) for the folders with the names of the applications you are having trouble with.
Note:
The reason to do this is because repairing permissions with Disk Utility (as the tech did) doesn't touch permissions inside your home folder.
-mj
[email protected]

Can't read iPhoto library from external drive

I suddenly can't can't read iPhoto library from external drive. I have talked to WD and nohing is wrong with the network drive. I can open images and files from it. But, I can't read in iPhoto Library.

Network Drive? a NAS?
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
Basically, you need to move the library to a correctly formatted disk.

Re-setting Read&Write permissions on external drive?

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