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Re: thumb drive
jaybass #55188 07/12/20 12:05 AM
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That sounds like all your options are grayed out and you've got no way to unlock them on three different drives?

Last edited by artie505; 07/12/20 11:18 AM. Reason: Rewrite

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: thumb drive
jaybass #55192 07/12/20 02:55 PM
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Yes there should be a padlock at the extreme lower right corner of the Get Info window. It should be present in every Get Info window whether it is a file, folder, or drive.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

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Re: thumb drive
joemikeb #55194 07/12/20 08:49 PM
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Originally Posted By: jaybass
there wasn't a padlock there either. If there is supposed to be one, can this be rectified?
I already answered the first part of this question but I got to wondering why you would not have the padlock. The only answers I can come up with are...
  1. You are not logged on to an administrative account. To check this, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups and in the sidebar of that window the Current user should be your account name and that it should say "admin". If it doesn't you need to login to an account with admin privileges.
  2. Your system and/or User privileges have become corrupted. Several years ago this was a common occurrence but it has been a long time since I have seen or heard of its happening. Disk Utility used to have a permission repair tool but that has been removed. This OSXDaily article talks about El Capitan, but it should still work in Catalina.
  3. For some reason the system thinks all your drives belong to another user and you do not have access to change their permission settings. This too can be "fixed" but it requires logging on as a ROOT user and doing a lot of work from the command line. That is very, risky even for experienced Unix admins, so I don't want to go there unless it proves necessary.
Others may come up with possibilities I have overlooked and hopefully will chime in with their ideas.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: thumb drive
joemikeb #55195 07/12/20 10:11 PM
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jaybass Offline OP
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Joe, I checked system prefs>User & groups and 'admin' is there

I then had permissions verified & repaired using terminal...I got the info from the internet.

The 3rd option I have no idea what that's all about.

How would I know if repairing permissions has made a difference?

jaybass


OS 13.6.4 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD
Re: thumb drive
joemikeb #55196 07/12/20 11:02 PM
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One thought in passing....perhaps I missed it in reviewing the earlier posts in this thread - is there a chance that this thumb drive came formatted NTFS?

If so, that might explain everything.....


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Re: thumb drive
MacManiac #55197 07/12/20 11:32 PM
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I think the image in post #55177 suggests that the drive referenced in jaybass's original post is formatted FAT, but two other (unquantified) drives show the same "no padlock" anomaly.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: thumb drive
MacManiac #55199 07/13/20 02:16 AM
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jaybass Offline OP
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When I ran first aid in DU, in show details, "phase 1 preparing FAT" and finally that the operation was successful.

jaybass


OS 13.6.4 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD
Re: thumb drive
joemikeb #55202 07/13/20 03:26 PM
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Perhaps MacOS 10.12.6 might be a factor?

Different DU than we see on 10.15.5 (or even 10.16 Beta....) and I personally don't recall whether there is a padlock in the lower RH corner of the Get Info window under 10.12.6 (Sierra) or not.


Freedom is never free....thank a Service member today.
Re: thumb drive
MacManiac #55204 07/13/20 06:02 PM
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jaybass Offline OP
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Altogether, I have tried 6 thumb drives (Kingston & Lexar) none which show a padlock. I tried 4 files from my docs and each one show a padlock. I have just put a thumb drive in my docs and and in 'get info' there is a padlock. Does that tell you anything?

jaybass



OS 13.6.4 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD
Re: thumb drive
jaybass #55206 07/13/20 08:54 PM
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All the discussion about missing padlocks has distracted from the real question, namely, does the fact that you haven't got a padlock to unlock prevent you from clicking on a specific "Name" in the Get Info pane and changing that user's "Privilege," which is the original intent of this exercise?

I. e., is the pane grayed out?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: thumb drive
artie505 #55207 07/13/20 10:32 PM
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The 'real' question was & still is, can we find a way to delete the files on my son's thumb drive. Since no-one knows how this can be done, I suggest we stop flogging a dead horse.

Thank you artie.

jaybass


OS 13.6.4 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD
Re: thumb drive
jaybass #55208 07/14/20 01:45 AM
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Originally Posted By: jaybass
The 'real' question was & still is, can we find a way to delete the files on my son's thumb drive. Since no-one knows how this can be done, I suggest we stop flogging a dead horse.

Way back in post #55186, joemike suggested that you may be able to delete the files on that drive by changing its permissions...
Quote:
At the bottom of the Info window look at Sharing & Permissions (scroll down to the bottom of that image)
If that indicates you have "Read Only" permission,
Click on the padlock at the bottom right corner of the Get Info window
Enter the password for your administrative account
Change your privilege to Read & Write

So far, your only response to that spot-on suggestion has been that you don't see a padlock.

A mystery, true, but until you address the drive's current permissions and whether you're able to change them without regard for the missing padlock the horse is still alive and, if not necessarily well, at least breathing.

The mystery of the missing padlock has totally diverted this discussion from the possibility that your problem may have an easy solution that's already been posted!

More: And on the other hand, I just found this in a post from 2014: "OS X does not allow the usual file & directory permission on MS-DOS (FAT) disks, so you can't try to make it read/write."

Last edited by artie505; 07/14/20 04:26 AM. Reason: More

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: thumb drive
artie505 #55217 07/14/20 06:13 PM
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jaybass Offline OP
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At the bottom of the Info window look at Sharing & Permissions (scroll down to the bottom of that image)
If that indicates you have "Read Only" permission,
Click on the padlock at the bottom right corner of the Get Info window
Enter the password for your administrative account
Change your privilege to Read & Write.

Regarding the above instructions which cannot be followed because there is no padlock, you suggest that there might be an easy solution "that's already been posted' If you can point out that posting, I will certainly take another look.

This thumb drive contains a few videos which my son can play on his computer.
If he wishes to keep any of them, he can copy them to his desktop using iSkysoft.

We know the drive itself is toast so should we pursue the problem any further?
Thank you for your interest Artie.

jaybass


OS 13.6.4 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD
Re: thumb drive
jaybass #55230 07/16/20 10:36 AM
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Originally Posted By: jaybass
At the bottom of the Info window look at Sharing & Permissions (scroll down to the bottom of that image)
If that indicates you have "Read Only" permission,
Click on the padlock at the bottom right corner of the Get Info window
Enter the password for your administrative account
Change your privilege to Read & Write.

Regarding the above instructions which cannot be followed because there is no padlock, you suggest that there might be an easy solution "that's already been posted' If you can point out that posting, I will certainly take another look.

We know the drive itself is toast so should we pursue the problem any further?

You just reposted the "easy" solution, i.e. "Change your privilege to Read & Write."

Depending upon what you're seeing on your screen, which none of us can do any more than guess at, the fact that you don't see a padlock does NOT necessarily mean that you can't change your privilege.

If, for instance, you're seeing the equivalent of this, you need to click on the "Sharing & Permissions" disclosure arrow to (possibly) reveal the padlock, et.al.

If, on the other hand, you're seeing the equivalent of this, but without the padlock, you may still be able to click on the privilege attached to your name and change it.

"No padlock" is simply insufficient information under the circumstances. (At the least, a screenshot would have been appropriate.)

And speaking of insufficient information, your telling us that your Kingston and Lexar drives don't show padlocks would be much more meaningful if you also told us whether they're formatted HFS+ or something else.

I don't know that we've established that the drive is toast, but pursuing the matter or not is your choice.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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