Deleting files in Root of Catalina

[Killerbob]

I (stupidly) created a folder in the root of my boot drive. I put some big files in there, thinking it would be OK, like it was under Mojave.

Then I realised that I can't change these files, and copied the folder somewhere else. But, now I can't delete the files or the folder???

How do I do that?

 

[haralds]

Boot into recovery and disable SIP. Boot into Mojave and move the folder. Boot into recovery to enable SIP.

 

[Killerbob]

And by Mojave, you mean Catalina?

 

[DeltaMac]

I'm pretty sure that was just a "fast-typing" error.
You would boot back up into whatever system you are normally using.
Just to clarify that post, you disable SIP, after booting to the recovery system, with the "csrutil disable" command. Restart to your normal system, and you should be able to remove that folder from the root of your drive. Restart to the recovery system, and run "csrutil enable" to enable SIP again.
That's the process to change the status of SIP on any Mac. You must do that through the recovery system terminal.

 

[Killerbob]

I disabled SIP, booted back into Catalina, and I still cannot delete the folder. I can’t delete the files in the folder either...

Any other suggestions?

 

[DeltaMac]

Boot to a different boot drive.
Navigate to your drive from that system. That should allow deleting a folder/files from another volume.

Just curious - your Catalina drive has two volumes, one is read-only, with the system files, with your hard drive name (like Macintosh HD). The other volume is same name plus Data (so, the example would be Macintosh HD - Data). That volume has all your files and apps. Which volume did you choose to copy all those big files?

 

[spheris]

Copy the data to a spare drive, do a clean install and don't do it again is the best route. Whatever you've done to get it in there, you might be able to reverse the steps but it might very well be futile to. The system volume is off limits and that's not a secret. It's just going to get more masochistic as time goes on trying to tamper with it.

 

[Killerbob]

I only have the one boot drive on my Mac Pro, with Catalina installed now.

On my Mac Pro the SSD is named "Master". I can tell from the sizes, that "Master" has the system folders, and "Master - Data" has everything else.

The folder I want gone is on "Master"...

 

[TimothyR734]

I only have the one boot drive on my Mac Pro, with Catalina installed now.

On my Mac Pro the SSD is named "Master". I can tell from the sizes, that "Master" has the system folders, and "Master - Data" has everything else.

The folder I want gone is on "Master"...

Maybe try the script in the terminal that should give you permission and also try this in the terminal sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

 

[Killerbob]

Sorted...

I ended up piecemealing a solution together from all the feedback and suggestions:

1) Booting into Recovery, disabling SIP
2) Mount the Master drive, using -uw
3) Change to the mounted partition
4) Deleting the unwanted directories using rmdir -r
5) Enabling SIP
6) Reboot and be happy...

Thanks!

 

[spheris]

Glad you got the files fixed. Stick to the data volume. In the somewhere near future, that kind of thing could very well brick you if you have a t2 system.

 

[Killerbob]

And I don't even know how the system allowed me to create the folder and populate it in the first place. And I wasn't thinking - I was prepared for some of the Catalina ways of doing things, but when the system allowed me to create the folders, I though it was going to be OK, that is until I tried to start LightRoom...

 

[spheris]

It's going to be a little bit of an adjustment for a bit. Definitely going to be a learning curve for the people used to messing in the root system. The upside is that it's going to stop a lot of unwanted things from messing around with it too and that's always a bonus.

 

[Killerbob]

I am fine with it, but my OCD is going nuts...

The biggest issue I have is the slowness of the iOS integration into the Finder. Syncing iPhones and iPads is so slow... Also, right now, when shutting down Windows 10 (in Bootcamp) the system is obviously preventing the write to the bootinfo files, and hence the system will not shut down entirely, and it will continue to boot up in the Windows partition, until I go into Boot Manager and select macOS...

 

[haralds]

And by Mojave, you mean Catalina?

No, Mojave. You will have trouble with the Read-Only volume on Catalina even with SIP disabled.
[doublepost=1563131086][/doublepost]

Sorted...

I ended up piecemealing a solution together from all the feedback and suggestions:

1) Booting into Recovery, disabling SIP
2) Mount the Master drive, using -uw
3) Change to the mounted partition
4) Deleting the unwanted directories using rmdir -r
5) Enabling SIP
6) Reboot and be happy...

Thanks!

That's the hardcore way I would actually use.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

I posted a thread with a similar issue.

As a Mac users for 15+ years, I've always upgraded to the most recent OS. However, as a developer I wasn't thrilled with some of the changes in Catalina, mainly how root access is handled esp as there are two Applications folders, one being System read only.

I've always disabled SIP and Gatekeeper for reasons I won't get into and am well aware of the risks but maintain those Mac's off net or on extremely secure networks. During development I researched how to enable read/write user access using terminal but wasn't thrilled with the extra steps as at the time it wasn't permanent. Yet Xcode now requires Catalina moving forward and I haven't upgraded that Mac Pro for development but may have to now.

I haven't used the latest version of Catalina and didn't intend to until the newest developer beta's came out so will do some research on whether Apple has further locked root access and negated the terminal commands I found to enable access. For those in the same position or may know, has Catalina changed more so that the latest releases are even more inaccessible? Meaning can users still override SIP, Gatekeeper, and the lockdown on root/system access? Thanks for any advice and help.

Maybe try the script in the terminal that should give you permission and also try this in the terminal sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

This is the exact command I used back when I was running Catalina. Is this still working on the latest versions? It worked perfectly as it pretty much ran like Mojave.

 

[TimothyR734]

I posted a thread with a similar issue.

As a Mac users for 15+ years, I've always upgraded to the most recent OS. However, as a developer I wasn't thrilled with some of the changes in Catalina, mainly how root access is handled esp as there are two Applications folders, one being System read only.

I've always disabled SIP and Gatekeeper for reasons I won't get into and am well aware of the risks but maintain those Mac's off net or on extremely secure networks. During development I researched how to enable read/write user access using terminal but wasn't thrilled with the extra steps as at the time it wasn't permanent. Yet Xcode now requires Catalina moving forward and I haven't upgraded that Mac Pro for development but may have to now.

I haven't used the latest version of Catalina and didn't intend to until the newest developer beta's came out so will do some research on whether Apple has further locked root access and negated the terminal commands I found to enable access. For those in the same position or may know, has Catalina changed more so that the latest releases are even more inaccessible? Meaning can users still override SIP, Gatekeeper, and the lockdown on root/system access? Thanks for any advice and help.



This is the exact command I used back when I was running Catalina. Is this still working on the latest versions? It worked perfectly as it pretty much ran like Mojave.

As far as I know it still work as tended to

 

[CJ Dorschel]

As far as I know it still work as tended to

Excellent! Thank you!

 

[htmanning]

Sorted...

I ended up piecemealing a solution together from all the feedback and suggestions:

1) Booting into Recovery, disabling SIP
2) Mount the Master drive, using -uw
3) Change to the mounted partition
4) Deleting the unwanted directories using rmdir -r
5) Enabling SIP
6) Reboot and be happy...

Thanks!

Can you give a bit more detail on this? After disabling SIP, how do you mount the master drive and with to the mounted partition? Is this after another reboot or still in Recovery Mode.

When I upgraded to Catalina it took a SQL database file from my documents folder and put it in the root. Now I can't delete it. I also have some Time Machine backup files in the root that I can't get rid of. I don't believe either of those were there on Mojave unless they were hidden.

Thanks.

 

[DeltaMac]

Killerbob said that his boot drive is named "Master", so you would disable SIP, restart normally (SIP remains disabled until you choose to re-enable it), and you should be OK with browsing to the root of your boot drive, where you should be able to trash the files and folders that you don't want there.

 

[htmanning]

Killerbob said that his boot drive is named "Master", so you would disable SIP, restart normally (SIP remains disabled until you choose to re-enable it), and you should be OK with browsing to the root of your boot drive, where you should be able to trash the files and folders that you don't want there.

Thanks, but it doesn't work like that. After disabling SIP I still cannot delete the extra files in Macintosh HD. He was doing it in Terminal but I don't know how to mount Macintosh HD from the Terminal in Recovery Mode. I've tried using the diskutil mountDisk command and the mount -uw command and neither works.

 

[htmanning]

Okay, I was able to complete it. After disabling SIP, I booted normally into the OS then did the following in Terminal:

sudo mount -uw /
killall Finder

Then I was able to do the following:

sudo rm -fr filename

Thanks Killerbob and DeltaMac!

 

[Iluvatar1981]

Another easy way you can follow is to enable the "root" user.
From there you can delete the file or folder and then disable it. ?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Another easy way you can follow is to enable the "root" user.
From there you can delete the file or folder and then disable it. ?

You will still need to disable SIP and mount the OS Volume RW, see post #22.

 

[Iluvatar1981]

You will still need to disable SIP and mount the OS Volume RW, see post #22.

Who says the opposite?