OS X Tips - Changing File and Folder Permissions

Sometimes I find that in OS X the file and folder permissions are not set correctly and I start getting errors. Below is how to change the file and folder permission settings. You will need an account with administrative rights to complete these tasks.

Ctrl-Click or Right Click on the folder or file you need to change the permissions for:



Open the Sharing and Permissions settings:



Click on the padlock in the lower left corner and provide a user name and password for an account with administrative rights when prompted. This unlocks the settings so that you can make changes.

Select the user that you want to change permissions for and modify them using the pull down area under "Privilege"



You can also change the ownership and apply settings to enclosed items (for folders) by using the pull down menu shown below:



Once you are done click the padlock icon again to prevent further changes to the new settings.

Installing Lotus Notes on a Mac, part 1

We only have a handful of Apple computers in the building and I am the go to person for all things Apple related. One of the hardest tasks I have found is installing Lotus Notes correctly for end users in OS X. Just last week IBM finally released Lotus Notes 8.5 for Mac out of beta but it is for Leopard only.

This is fine for all but one of my users who has a Mac Pro running Tiger. I have a Leopard license for him but because he is running Creative Suite 2.3 I can't upgrade him yet. Creative Suite 2.3 is not compatible with Leopard. Even at academic prices that means dropping an additional $330 for the Design Premium pack in order to get both Photoshop and InDesign. It's actually cheaper to buy more software than needed because the Photoshop license alone is almost $300.

We have a new employee, a web programmer for one of the departments, that has a brand new iMac running Leopard. Last week, before 8.5 was out of beta, I tried to install the Lotus Notes 7.02 client on his computer. I installed it while logged into his user account, which has administrative access, but had lots of file permission problems just trying to finish the setup process.

Apparently, even though it was installed as the user, the default permission settings do not allow him read/write access to his data folder. I had to go into the data folder, manually give him ownership and the propagate those settings to the enclosed items. Usually this takes care of the problem but now I am just getting a random "file permission error" that tells me nothing - no information about what file or what the problem is.

My next plan of action is to start over with the new 8.5 client and see if that fixes the problem. Since he is gone for the next three days at a training class I have time to trial and error things without interrupting his productivity. I will keep you all posted on how it goes.