Permissions repair trick

[Alan Browne]

Stumbled on this as I was looking up migration assistant issues.

https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/

Footnote claims this works through Yosemite and later.

Short version (copied from site).

Restart OS X and hold down the Command and R keys.

You will boot into the Repair Utilities screen. On top, in the Menu Bar
click the Utilities item then select Terminal.

In the Terminal window, type “resetpassword” (without the quotes) and
hit Return.

The Password reset utility launches, but you’re not going to reset the
password. Instead, click on the icon for your Mac’s hard drive at the
top. From the drop-down below it, select the user account where you are
having issues.

At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home
Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.

<churns>

Quit and restart the Mac...

--
Beginning in the 1970's, all birds in North America were replaced by
drones made to look and act like birds. By 2004, no real birds are to
be found. They are all drones. They all belong to the government.
They spy on everyone. All of the time. Birds are not real.

[Lewis]

In message <OQquJ.125405$np6....@fx46.iad> Alan Browne <bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:

> Stumbled on this as I was looking up migration assistant issues.

> https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/

From a decade ago?

[ Snip ]

> At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home
> Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.

This hasn't been necessary on a very long time.

It is also trivial to do without booting into recovery.

chown -R <shortusername> ~

done.

--
"Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking... NERFHERDER!"
"Who's Scruffy looking?"

[Alan Browne]

On 2021-12-15 15:44, Lewis wrote:
> In message <OQquJ.125405$np6....@fx46.iad> Alan Browne <bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:
>
>> Stumbled on this as I was looking up migration assistant issues.
>
>> https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/
>
> From a decade ago?
>
> [ Snip ]

Speaking of snipping you snipped out where it is still valid until at
least Yosemite (and "later" per the article writer).

>
>> At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home
>> Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.
>
> This hasn't been necessary on a very long time.
>
> It is also trivial to do without booting into recovery.
>
> chown -R <shortusername> ~

The good ones are hard to find.

[Lewis]

In message <YBsuJ.122614$aF1....@fx98.iad> Alan Browne <bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:
> On 2021-12-15 15:44, Lewis wrote:
>> In message <OQquJ.125405$np6....@fx46.iad> Alan Browne <bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Stumbled on this as I was looking up migration assistant issues.
>>
>>> https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/
>>
>> From a decade ago?
>>
>> [ Snip ]

> Speaking of snipping you snipped out where it is still valid until at
> least Yosemite (and "later" per the article writer).

That was the opinion of whoever wrote that. Fixing permissions on your
home folder does not require recovery mode and hasn't for a very long
time, if it ever did.

--
'Good and bad is tricky, she [Esme] said. 'I ain't too certain about
where people stand. P'raps what matters is which way you face.'

[Alan Browne]

On 2021-12-15 22:52, Lewis wrote:
> In message <YBsuJ.122614$aF1....@fx98.iad> Alan Browne <bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:
>> On 2021-12-15 15:44, Lewis wrote:
>>> In message <OQquJ.125405$np6....@fx46.iad> Alan Browne <bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Stumbled on this as I was looking up migration assistant issues.
>>>
>>>> https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/
>>>
>>> From a decade ago?
>>>
>>> [ Snip ]
>
>> Speaking of snipping you snipped out where it is still valid until at
>> least Yosemite (and "later" per the article writer).
>
> That was the opinion of whoever wrote that. Fixing permissions on your
> home folder does not require recovery mode and hasn't for a very long
> time, if it ever did.

Glad to know it in case I need it.

[nospam]

In article <xAJuJ.155128$831....@fx40.iad>, Alan Browne

<bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:

> >>>
> >>>> https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/
> >>>
> >>> From a decade ago?
> >>>
> >>> [ Snip ]
> >
> >> Speaking of snipping you snipped out where it is still valid until at
> >> least Yosemite (and "later" per the article writer).
> >
> > That was the opinion of whoever wrote that. Fixing permissions on your
> > home folder does not require recovery mode and hasn't for a very long
> > time, if it ever did.
>
> Glad to know it in case I need it.

you won't. nobody does. permissions repair is a waste of time.

the term itself is misleading, since there is nothing to 'repair'. all
it did was reset permissions to what apple thinks it should be, which
is not the only valid choice. those who watched its progress could see
permissions on some files change, only to change back moments later
because the list of 'correct' permissions contradicted itself.

permissions 'repair' came to be because there were some *potential*
issues caused by dual-booting into mac os 9, which knew nothing of mac
os x permissions. this was usually from installers that did dumb
things, not everyday use.

booting into mac os 9 hasn't been possible for roughly 20 years, thus
need to 'repair' permissions no longer exists, and even back then, it
was very rare that it helped.

[Alan Browne]

On 2021-12-16 12:00, nospam wrote:
> In article <xAJuJ.155128$831....@fx40.iad>, Alan Browne
> <bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:
>
>>>>>
>>>>>> https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/
>>>>>
>>>>> From a decade ago?
>>>>>
>>>>> [ Snip ]
>>>
>>>> Speaking of snipping you snipped out where it is still valid until at
>>>> least Yosemite (and "later" per the article writer).
>>>
>>> That was the opinion of whoever wrote that. Fixing permissions on your
>>> home folder does not require recovery mode and hasn't for a very long
>>> time, if it ever did.
>>
>> Glad to know it in case I need it.
>
> you won't. nobody does. permissions repair is a waste of time.
>

> the term itself is...
Even better to know. Every time I initialize a new Mac and move files
to it, I'm worried this issue may crop up. I did have such issues back
in the early days (2007 ish) for reasons I no longer recall. I may have
had such issues in 2013 when I moved from the Core Duo Mac to the i7.
(There were various issues - but I don't recall if permissions was in
there).

IAC, new M1 MBA move went flawlessly. I didn't use MA, just copied the
files over and pruned more crud along the way (a lot of dupes,
questionably useful files, old downloads, etc. I backed that stuff up
on an external drive for my SO to filter over the holidays...

I picked iCloud (her account) for the recovery key, but I don't recall
seeing the key at all. Pretty sure I didn't miss it - was going slowly
enough.

[nospam]

In article <PKKuJ.222906$I%1.13...@fx36.iad>, Alan Browne

<bitb...@blackhole.com> wrote:

> Every time I initialize a new Mac and move files
> to it, I'm worried this issue may crop up. I did have such issues back
> in the early days (2007 ish) for reasons I no longer recall. I may have
> had such issues in 2013 when I moved from the Core Duo Mac to the i7.
> (There were various issues - but I don't recall if permissions was in
> there).

it's extremely unlikely that any issues were related to permissions
unless you migrated *after* initial setup, which creates a second
account whose user id doesn't match the one on the original mac.

the mismatch can cause problems, which is why migration should always
be done during initial setup. it's also something that is unaffected by
permissions repair.

> IAC, new M1 MBA move went flawlessly. I didn't use MA, just copied the
> files over and pruned more crud along the way (a lot of dupes,
> questionably useful files, old downloads, etc. I backed that stuff up
> on an external drive for my SO to filter over the holidays...

migration assistant would have made that significantly easier.

computers are there to do work *for* you.

[Alan Browne]

Not really. Connected over WiFi, selected the folders I had already
pruned, dropped them on the new MBA in the correct or new folders.

While they transferred played with the settings for various things
(trackpad is quite different for example). Checked a myriad of things
out, etc.

> computers are there to do work *for* you.

MA doesn't leave behind what I don't want to transfer from user files.
The whole thing (valid user files) was about 30 GB and change over a
half dozen folders.

Haven't figured out what to do with the 2015, i5, 4 GB/128GB MBA yet.
Though I may need it temporarily for work. I'll probably update it to
Monterey over the holidays too.

Local market prices (ask) are surprisingly high for MBA's - despite the
M1 MBA. Not sure what actual sales prices are happening though.