Permission Problems on EXTERNAL Drive After Migration

[Danweis1]

Recently went from a Mac Mini M2, 8gig to a Mac Mini M2, 16gig.
Followed this ( https://support.apple.com/en-us/102613 ) article exactly.

On the new Mac Mini, updated the OS first, started Migration Assistant then started Migration Assistant on the old Mac Mini.
Transferred using direct Ethernet to Ethernet. Everything went perfectly and the new Mac Mini had no problems, EXCEPT, the 8tb external drive had lots of locked files. I did nothing to it except to disconnect it from the old Mini and reconnect to the new Mini. I found an old article from 2008

How to batch unlock numerous files within subfolders/folders/directory?????

Time for some serious finder mojo: 1. Using Finder, the top level folder of those files that you want to unlock. Switch to List View mode (cmd-2). 2. You should now see a finder pane containing only those files and folders that you want to unlock. 3. Cmd-a to Select All. 4. Open all the...

forums.macrumors.com

and used the method therein to ‘batch unlock’ the files, which it looks like it did.

I’m running software like Photoshop and a variety of other imaging software to read and write to the external drive, no problems. However, today I ran into a weird little gotcha. I tried to ‘duplicate’ a photo in the preview app. When I went to save it, it said I didn’t have permission to do so? I tried several different folders on the external drive with the same result. Did a CMD-I on several folders and files and none are ‘locked’. Looked at permissions and my username has r+w permissions. User ‘everyone’ has r+w permissions. Unlocked the top level of the drive, hit the 3 dots and chose ‘apply to enclosed items’. Still no remedy.

Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks

 

[chabig]

I recommend noting the error and searching the web for that specifically.

 

[Fishrrman]

Do this.

The external drive that's giving you problems... connect it and let its icon mount on the desktop.

DO NOT open the icon.

Click on the drive icon ONE TIME to select it.

Now bring up the "get info" box (type command-i).

At the bottom of get info, click the lock icon and enter your administrative password.

Put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume".

Close get info.

NOW...
You can copy files from the external drive to your internal, and whatever you copy will fall under the ownership of your "new" account (the account on the new computer).

Give this simple trick a try, then get back to us with the results.

 

[joevt]

Maybe the user id and groups don't match for the new OS?

What's the user id and group id for the files on the external?

What's the user id and group id for the files on the internal?

Use ls -l to view names.
Use ls -ln to view numbers.

Usually the default number for the main user and group is 501, 20

joevt@Joes-Giga-Mac ~ % ls -ld ~/Library
drwx------@ 120 joevt  staff  3840  3 Oct  2023 /Users/joevt/Library
joevt@Joes-Giga-Mac ~ % ls -lnd ~/Library
drwx------@ 120 501  20  3840  3 Oct  2023 /Users/joevt/Library

 

[Danweis1]

Internal:

danweiss@Mac-mini-2 / % ls -ld ~/Library
drwx------@ 107 danweiss staff 3424 May 29 12:22 /Users/danweiss/Library
danweiss@Mac-mini-2 / % ls -lnd ~/Library
drwx------@ 107 503 20 3424 May 29 12:22 /Users/danweiss/Library

External:

danweiss@Mac-mini-2 / % ls -lnd /Volumes/8T
drwx---r-x@ 27 503 20 864 Jun 1 13:48 /Volumes/8T

danweiss@Mac-mini-2 ~ % ls -ld /Volumes/8T/Downloads
drwx---r-x 231 danweiss staff 7392 May 20 12:21 /Volumes/8T/Downloads
danweiss@Mac-mini-2 ~ % ls -lnd /Volumes/8T/Downloads
drwx---r-x 231 503 20 7392 May 20 12:21 /Volumes/8T/Downloads



So, first I see my UID is 503.... I have a feeling my UID on the old system was 501? But, I can't tell because I reset it a couple days ago. After using the new system for over a week and not running into this problem I felt safe resetting the old system. Regardless, my UID is the same on the internal and external storage.

Thanks

 

[joevt]

Downloads is a directory. Do the files in the directory have the correct user ID? List the info for a file that is having a problem.

If you have the "Ignore ownership" option enabled as described by @Fishrrman , then it probably makes all the files appear as being owned by you.

 

[Danweis1]

Do this.

The external drive that's giving you problems... connect it and let its icon mount on the desktop.

DO NOT open the icon.

Click on the drive icon ONE TIME to select it.

Now bring up the "get info" box (type command-i).

At the bottom of get info, click the lock icon and enter your administrative password.

Put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume".

Close get info.

NOW...
You can copy files from the external drive to your internal, and whatever you copy will fall under the ownership of your "new" account (the account on the new computer).

Give this simple trick a try, then get back to us with the results.

Did your suggestion. The only thing I couldn't do is copy to an internal drive, not enough room. I have over 1.5TB used on the external drive. I only have 125gb available on the internal drive. Attached are screen shots of the drive info and the error I'm getting when trying to save a duplicate file.

 

[Danweis1]

Downloads is a directory. Do the files in the directory have the correct user ID? List the info for a file that is having a problem.

If you have the "Ignore ownership" option enabled as described by @Fishrrman , then it probably makes all the files appear as being owned by you.

danweiss@Mac-mini-2 ~ % ls -la /Volumes/8T/Downloads
total 121902744
drwx---rwx 231 danweiss staff 7392 May 20 12:21 .
drwx---rwx@ 27 danweiss staff 864 Jun 2 12:19 ..
-rw----rw-@ 1 danweiss staff 32772 May 19 13:43 .DS_Store
-rwx--xrwx 1 danweiss staff 144559 May 28 2019 1379624 PrintLabel.pdf

and a hundred more...

And yes the Ignore Ownership is checked. I'll uncheck it and see what everything looks like afterwards.

EDIT----------------------

After unchecking the Ignore Ownership box, here is the result.
The files are actually owned by root:wheel

danweiss@Mac-mini-2 ~ % ls -lad /Volumes/8T/Downloads
drwx---rwx 231 root wheel 7392 May 20 12:21 /Volumes/8T/Downloads

Not sure what this means but maybe it has something to do with this...

 

[joevt]

The directory /Volumes/8T/Downloads is owned by root wheel. Is the file /Volumes/8T/Downloads/PrintLabel.pdf owned by root wheel?

Does the ID numbers of root wheel on the external drive match the ID numbers of root wheel on the internal drive? root wheel is usually 0 0.
(use -lan to show the ID numbers)

 

[Danweis1]

After unchecking the Ignore Ownership box and using ls -lan:

danweiss@Mac-mini-2 ~ % !!
ls -lan /Volumes/8T/Downloads
total 121902760
drwx---rwx 232 0 0 7424 Jun 3 17:23 .
drwx---rwx@ 27 0 0 864 Jun 2 13:18 ..
-rw----rw-@ 1 0 0 32772 May 19 13:43 .DS_Store
-rwx--xrwx 1 0 0 144559 May 28 2019 1379624 PrintLabel.pdf


danweiss@Mac-mini-2 / % ls -lan /Library
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 73 0 0 2336 May 28 19:01 .
drwxr-xr-x 20 0 0 640 May 7 00:01 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 May 7 00:01 .localized
drwxr-xr-x@ 5 0 0 160 May 28 19:01 Apple

So yes, the external and internal drives are root wheel, 0 0 WITH the Ignore Ownership box unchecked.