"You have custom access"??? (permissions issue)

Apologies if this has been covered before but I have quite a few folders that say "You have custom access" in the Sharing & Permissions section of the "Get Info" Finder window, not "You can read and write" as I would expect. Some of these really do seem to have unusual permissions, such as an "(unknown user)" entry, but others appear to have identical permissions to those for which Get Info says "You can read and write."
I suspect this is somehow related to some (but not all) of these folders originally being created in OS 10.1 (!!) & now in my Leopard file system courtesy of various Migration Assistant & Setup Assistant transfers spanning several Macs & hard drives since I played around with that ancient OS version.
Can anyone help me understand why this is so & more importantly how I can set these folder's permissions to the default, non-custom ones, which I assume will say "You can read and write" in the Get Info window?

Francine Schwieder wrote:
This whole issue is very convoluted and confusing, with new bewilderments (at least bewildering to me) turning up every day.
I agree completely! I keep hoping Apple will post some kbase articles or update Mac Help to explain more about the defaults & options, but so far the only things I have found are Mac OS X 10.5 Help: Sharing files on your network, Mac OS X 10.5 Help: Setting file-sharing options, & similar "lightweight" instructions which really don't say much more than I can discover by just poking around on my own.
For myself, I simply gave up, cloned my Leopard install to the disk I had been using for Time Machine, and did an erase and install, then let the migration assistant that pops up as the install finishes copy what it wished how it wished from the cloned system. At least things now look consistent: no more "unknown" files, no ACLs where none should be in my home folder, all new files are saved to the apparent new standard: user francine uid 501, group staff gid 20 (of course yesterday I found out even that isn't as straight-forward as one might think, I'll spare your the details).
Ironically perhaps, my Leopard install was done the same way (using Setup Assistant to copy everything possible from my Tiger clone, which is what I think you mean you used here) & it *did not* cause Spotlight to start indexing the Leopard volume or resolve any of the "unknown user" issues for me. This may have been because I messed around with permissions settings on some of my document files on the Tiger volume long ago when it had an additional standard account (since deleted), so that account's UID or GID could have been attached to a few files.
Just to muddy the waters even more, I've discovered a file (/Library/Preferences/com.apple.preferences.accounts.plist) that contains an array of four essential properties of every account I've ever deleted since installing Tiger: the "UniqueID" (which appears to be the UID), the short & long user names, & the date deleted. This file apparently is created anew each time an account is deleted (except curiously its creation date is exactly one day later than that of the last account deletion) but it clearly includes the info from previous versions.
Annoyingly, the Sharing Only user that I added that (I think) caused Spotlight to start indexing did not have the UID (& thus GID) of the deleted account I mentioned above, so the theory that the old account had something to do with it now looks dubious at best.
The more I study this, the less it makes any sense.

Similar Messages

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    After upgrading from Tiger to Leopard I had so many permissions problems that I backed up all my docs, erased my Macbook Pro hard drive (first time since I bought a Mac in 1985 that I have EVER had to do this), and installed a 100% clean Leopard install (no upgrade from Tiger). I updated everything through Software Update. Then I copied back several folders from my backups.
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    Other threads suggest that one of these "everyone"s is left over from Tiger, but they have scary suggestions on how to fix the problem (see below).
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    Carefully I tried a couple of these, and have wrestled the problem down to maybe 40% of its original size. And my heart leapt when one solution seemed to work on one of my biggest folders: sudo chmod -R -a# 0 FOLDERNAME.
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    I HAVE FOUND GOD AND HE WORKS AT APPLE IN THE APPLECARE TECH SUPPORT DEPARTMENT!
    (First, let me apologize to people who find the above offensive on religious grounds... OK, now on to the details.)
    I am posting here the steps that a certain support guy (accessed through 800-APL-CARE) stepped me through. The solution is so simple that I am beginning to doubt my sanity. It may not work for everyone, but it seems to have worked for me. I'm leaving this thread "not yet answered" for a couple of days just to be sure, but I can say that MUCH of my problem is definitely different and is apparently 100% gone. I'll follow up later to be sure.
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    4.
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    5.
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    Step 5 was the one that had messed up my drive on previous occasions, because (I think) it applied hidden things called ACLs to enclosed folders and files. But my support guy assured me that this step was OK and would fix my problem.
    6.
    You will probably get a dialog box asking for your Admin password again. Enter it and click.
    7.
    Wait. Breathe deeply. A progress bar will start spinning. Depending upon the size of your hard drive, it may take awhile.
    8.
    When the process finishes, close the Get Info window.
    9.
    GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE! THE PROBLEM IS FIXED!
    At least mine is, so far. For you techies, the proof to me that a huge step in the right direction has been taken is that an ls -l command in terminal NO LONGER produces entries like:
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    I am uncomfortable in Terminal and I don't really understand permissions and ACLs, but I think the significant differences are: no plus sign after the initial string of permissions, "wheel" instead of "staff", and NO SECOND LINE CONTAINING DENY DELETE.
    Apple: Can't you produce a tech note explaining this process?? It's really simple! Even a grown-up could do it! (Apologies if you already have and it was posted a month ago and it's highlighted in flashing red text on the discussions.apple.com website and somehow I missed it...)

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    Message was edited by: abernardi

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    The Cloud forum is not about using individual programs
    The Cloud forum is about the Cloud as a delivery & install process
    If you will start at the Forums Index https://forums.adobe.com/welcome
    You will be able to select a forum for the specific Adobe product(s) you use
    Click the "down arrow" symbol on the right (where it says All communities) to open the drop down list and scroll
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    Something like this?
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    bowlerboy_jmb

    {I read that article you sent me to, Baltwo, but it does not seem appropriate, because the disk is not invisible. It's locked! I also went through all the discussions on flag changing you directed to me to look up, and I tried to apply something from there to my situation. But that's not working for me yet either. The topics there seem to be close enough to be relevant to my case, but none are exactly on the mark, and so far they deliver no cigar. Maybe I missed the one thread you had in mind from among the twenty I looked through: I can't be sure. You point it out, if you have one in mind. Anyway, in the absence of anyone providing me with specific Unix code or suggestions about my particular situation, I plunged ahead on my own, and I attempted to write some Unix code that might fix my problem. So far, I've had no success. This posting intersperses my comments along with the lines of Unix code which were displayed on my MacBook Pro during my recent attempts to tinker under the hood. My remarks are contained inside of curly brackets like { and } while the results of my Unix experimenting in Single User Mode on the laptop are presented without curly brackets. These were initially notes to myself, so I'm creating a post around my Unix dabbling to see if it triggers any feedback, corrections, and guidance for moving ahead. I'm stuck right now.}
    date
    Fri Jun 19 17:52:25 EDT 2009
    :/ root# sudo chflags nouchg /
    sudo: can't open /private/etc/sudoers: Permission denied
    :/ root# sendmail: warning: valid_hostname: empty hostname
    sendmail: fatal: unable to use my own hostname
    :/ root# ls -l
    {The screen filled up with rows of file names and their permissions, like...}
    drwxrwxr-x+ 43 root admin 1462 Jun 16 04:36 Applications
    :/ root# exit
    {Nothing happens for quite a while, then...}
    jettisoning kernel linker.
    {...and then several lines of replies fill up the screen, ending in that same loop regarding no such file or directory found, in regards to mDNSResponder. I had tried the {chmod 775 > solution recommended by a user at a web site I Googled to deal with the mDNSResponder problem he had. The chmod 775 / command worked for him, he reported, but it does not succeed for me. The mDNSResponderline continues to repeat itself ad infinitum, so I must force the Mac to turn off by holding down the power button for several seconds. Upon restart in Single User mode, I observe that, as before, "Root device is mounted read-only," so this time I try to amend permissions at the root level with...}
    :/ root# sudo chmod 755 /
    {If I understand what I've just learned about Unix, this tells the Mac to give me permission to do anything, but to give all others permission only to read and execute. Unfortunately, the command fails. The computer again responded with the same lines that it gave me when I had issued the command regarding no user flags, namely:}
    sudo: can't open /private/etc/sudoers: Permission denied
    :/ root# sendmail: warning: valid_hostname: empty hostname
    sendmail: fatal: unable to use my own hostname
    {So, to summarize, I have a MacBook Pro which I am apparently locked out of and cannot change. The hard disk is not invisible: it will appear as an external drive when placed in Target Mode and connected via a Firewire cable to an iMac. I tried to use Terminal on that iMac to change permissions on the MacBook Pro, but permission was denied.
    {So, I have tried to make changes on the MacBook Pro directly. I learned that it will neither start-up under normal circumstances nor via Safe Boot mode. It will, however, start-up under Single User mode. Based on my bleary-eyed crash course in Unix throughout all of last night and early this morning, I did gain some additional understanding about UNIX from some [free online books|http://www.scribd.com/doc/12747795/Made-Easy-Unix-for-Beginners] and articles, especially from a thorough and lucidly written article at Indiana University called [In Unix, how do I change the permissions for a file?|http://kb.iu.edu/data/data/abdb.html]
    {Also, I followed the links to the Apple discussions on user flags, and I cherry picked the most appropriate solutions suggested there to see if they will apply to my situation. However, none quite fit. None have thus far succeeded. I think I now know how to formulate the syntax of Unix commands in regards to modifying permissions, and I'm willing to plow ahead and try things out. But I'm only a rank beginner in this Unix realm, so maybe I'm doing something wrong in that department.
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