[manny_festo]

I recently downloaded a music production program (FXpansion Guru) onto my desktop. Out of nowhere all the files on my desktop dissappeared. When I try to open it i get: "The folder "Desktop" could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges." I tried to repair disk permissions but no luck... I would be extremely greatful if anyone can help.

Thnk you..

[reader50]

Which permissions did you try to repair again? Oh, you fixed it. Dang.

The file you downloaded is very possibly corrupted. Or more likely, it got expanded into a corrupted folder. Open a Terminal window. Type:

cd Desktop
ls -l

Note that if the command were all uppercase, the second command would be "LS -L". This will navigate to your Desktop folder, and give a complete file list. Highlight the file you downloaded (including extension) and hit command-c to copy to the clipboard. Then type the following command to delete the file:

rm filename.extension

... except paste in the real filename. This deletes the file, "rm" is short for remove. If it complains that the file is actually a directory with files inside, then use this command:

rm -r foldername.extension

The "-r" flag makes the command recursive, it will jump into the folder and get anything inside, then remove the folder as well. If Terminal complains that the file is busy, or something like that, add the "-f" flag to force deletion. ie:

rm -rf foldername.extension

If it still gives you guff about not having enough priviliges to delete the file, type:

sudo rm -rf foldername.extension

Terminal will ask for an administrator password.

Once the problem folder is gone, relaunch the Finder. If you haven't installed the Quit command to the Finder using various utilities, then call up the Force-Quit dialog. Option-Command-Escape. Quitting the Finder through this dialog will cause it to relaunch. The Desktop should appear as usual.

[manny_festo]

This is what I got from the first command (cd Desktop):

Last login: Wed Aug 16 20:22:22 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ cd Desktop
-bash: cd: Desktop: Permission denied
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$

----But when I gave the second command (ls -l) this is what came up..

Last login: Wed Aug 16 20:22:22 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ cd Desktop
-bash: cd: Desktop: Permission denied
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ ls -l
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 3 cleanuse admin 102 14 Aug 16:18 Applications
drwx------ 23 501 501 782 15 Aug 14:08 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 1882 cleanuse admin 63988 15 Aug 15:26 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 64 cleanuse admin 2176 29 Jul 12:39 Incomplete
drwxr-xr-x 19 cleanuse admin 646 7 Jul 2005 JayZ Fade To Black1
drwx------ 33 cleanuse admin 1122 14 Feb 2006 Library
drwxr-xr-x 6 cleanuse admin 204 7 Jul 2005 Million.Dollar.Baby.LiMITED.DVD.SCREENER.XViD-MPAA
drwxr-xr-x 11 cleanuse admin 374 22 Jun 14:45 Movies
drwxrwxrwx 9 cleanuse admin 306 21 Jul 2005 Music
drwxr-xr-x 5 cleanuse admin 170 23 Oct 2005 Napoleon Dynamite - 02 -
drwxr-xr-x 56 cleanuse admin 1904 19 Jul 2005 Napoleon.Dynamite.2004.PROPER.DVDSCR.XViD-TWiST
-rw-r--r-- 1 cleanuse admin 0 14 Feb 2006 Opera 7 Preferences.new
drwxr-xr-x 12 cleanuse admin 408 17 Jun 00:40 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 10 cleanuse admin 340 6 Jul 2005 Sin City
drwxr-xr-x 18 cleanuse admin 612 6 Jul 2005 The Wire - season 1 complete
drwxr-xr-x 17 cleanuse admin 578 6 Jul 2005 The Wire - season 3 complete
-rw-r--r-- 1 cleanuse admin 0 7 Jul 2005 kjs-napdyn.avi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 8 17 Jun 00:45 loc.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 40 17 Jun 00:45 tmp1.txt


-----I notice that where it should say (cleanuse admin) it says (501 501) instead. Do you think this could be part of the problem?

[reader50]

Yeah, it should show the same owner/group as the rest of your files. Scratch my advice on deleting stuff, the owner got changed on your Desktop folder. Did you rename your home folder recently, or change your user name in Accounts?

Anyway, to try a quick fix, type:

chown cleanuse Desktop

chown = change owner. If it wants more permissions to do this, then:

sudo chown cleanuse Desktop

As usual, using sudo will cause it to ask for an admin password.

note: 501 is the dafault UID for the first user created. If you haven't edited the Accounts, it will be the admin user created right after a fresh OS install.

[manny_festo]

Ok so I gave the command and then it asked me for my password.
The problem is when I try to type the password the letters aren't there as if my keyboard is unresponsive. so this is what it looks like now...

Last login: Wed Aug 16 20:23:58 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ chown cleanuse Desktop
chown: cleanuse: Invalid argument
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ sudo chown Desktop
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
usage: chown [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] owner[:group] file ...
chown [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] :group file ...
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$


----Is my password supposed to be invisible?

[reader50]

Yes. Terminal usually doesn't show anything, where a browser shows ****** in place of the password.

[manny_festo]

Where do I go from here? So should I relaunch my finder or restart my computer or something to see if this worked?
And if it does or not I appreciate you taking the time to help.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by manny_festo

Ok so I gave the command and then it asked me for my password.
The problem is when I try to type the password the letters aren't there as if my keyboard is unresponsive. so this is what it looks like now...

Last login: Wed Aug 16 20:23:58 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ chown cleanuse Desktop
chown: cleanuse: Invalid argument
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ sudo chown Desktop
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
usage: chown [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] owner[:group] file ...
chown [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] :group file ...
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$


----Is my password supposed to be invisible?

Instead of "sudo chown Desktop" you need to:

sudo chown cleanuse:admin Desktop

[manny_festo]

hmmm.. I tried this and I typed my password but then it reads: invalid argument
I must say, this is a pretty frustrating situation. I'm arguing with my computer and my computer is winning.

[manny_festo]

Yesterday I was in another forum that said to type in the terminal :
ls -la

andthis is what I got:

total 56
drwx------ 25 cleanuse admin 850 15 Aug 15:01 .
drwxrwxr-t 7 root admin 238 15 Aug 16:19 ..
-rw------- 1 cleanuse admin 15364 15 Aug 18:06 .DS_Store
drwx------ 290 cleanuse admin 9860 15 Aug 14:06 .Trash
-rw------- 1 cleanuse admin 1686 16 Aug 21:24 .bash_history
drwxr-xr-x 13 cleanuse admin 442 22 Jun 14:44 .dvdcss
drwxr-xr-x 3 cleanuse admin 102 14 Aug 16:18 Applications
drwx------ 23 501 501 782 15 Aug 14:08 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 1882 cleanuse admin 63988 15 Aug 15:26 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 64 cleanuse admin 2176 29 Jul 12:39 Incomplete
drwxr-xr-x 19 cleanuse admin 646 7 Jul 2005 JayZ Fade To Black1
drwx------ 33 cleanuse admin 1122 14 Feb 2006 Library
drwxr-xr-x 6 cleanuse admin 204 7 Jul 2005 Million.Dollar.Baby.LiMITED.DVD.SCREENER.XViD-MPAA
drwxr-xr-x 11 cleanuse admin 374 22 Jun 14:45 Movies
drwxrwxrwx 9 cleanuse admin 306 21 Jul 2005 Music
drwxr-xr-x 5 cleanuse admin 170 23 Oct 2005 Napoleon Dynamite - 02 -
drwxr-xr-x 56 cleanuse admin 1904 19 Jul 2005 Napoleon.Dynamite.2004.PROPER.DVDSCR.XViD-TWiST
-rw-r--r-- 1 cleanuse admin 0 14 Feb 2006 Opera 7 Preferences.new
drwxr-xr-x 12 cleanuse admin 408 17 Jun 00:40 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 10 cleanuse admin 340 6 Jul 2005 Sin City
drwxr-xr-x 18 cleanuse admin 612 6 Jul 2005 The Wire - season 1 complete
drwxr-xr-x 17 cleanuse admin 578 6 Jul 2005 The Wire - season 3 complete
-rw-r--r-- 1 cleanuse admin 0 7 Jul 2005 kjs-napdyn.avi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 8 17 Jun 00:45 loc.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 40 17 Jun 00:45 tmp1.txt

____ I notice in this one, towards the top, it says :

drwxrwxr-t 7 root admin 238 15 Aug 16:19 ..

[reader50]

Adding the "-a" flag to an ls command causes it to list invisible items too. That is, items that begin with a period. The "." item is a shortcut to the folder you are already in. The ".." is a shortcut to the next folder up, in this case the Users folder. The Users folder is supposed to be owned by root, so you can ignore that part of the listing.

CharlesS is correct, the longer command he gave fixes both owner and group at the same time. I'd given the shorter change-owner-only version in hopes of keeping things simpler. Once the Finder can get owner access again, you can usually change the group using the more familiar Get Info pane.

So is it accepting CharlesS's version? If not, what does Terminal have to say about it?

[manny_festo]

Last login: Wed Aug 16 21:27:34 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$ sudo chown cleanuse:admin Desktop
Password:
chown: cleanuse: Invalid argument
Macintosh:~ cleanuser$

no luck....

[Art Vandelay]

It looks like the username "cleanuse" isn't a valid account.

Try typing:

whoami


Tell us what the result is.

[reader50]

Oh! His username is "cleanuser", but the Terminal is clipping the user name to 8 characters in the ls listings.

Here, try this command:

sudo chown cleanuser:admin Desktop

Tell us what happens.

[manny_festo]

Originally Posted by reader50

Oh! His username is "cleanuser", but the Terminal is clipping the user name to 8 characters in the ls listings.

Here, try this command:

sudo chown cleanuser:admin Desktop

Tell us what happens.

Yessss... I can access my desktop now but My files are gone

[Art Vandelay]

This is definitely an odd problem.

[reader50]

Are all of them gone, or just recently added ones? I'm not sure how the owner on your Desktop folder got changed, but once it did, any process that you owned which tried to put a file there, would not be able to.

It might be a good time to do a disk repair, see if it finds any damage. Directory damage can cause unexpected owner changes, as well as lost files.

If you own Diskwarrior, I'd recommend using it. Or other 3rd-party repair utilities, except Norton. Don't let Norton anywhere near your computer, and you will be much happier. If you don't have any 3rd-party repair utilities, boot from the Install disk and choose Disk Utility from the menu.

3rd-party utilities are preferred because they try to recover lost files. Disk Utility doesn't seem to make an effort on that, it just makes the disk whole again - if it can.

[manny_festo]

Well see, I had folders for music, pics, media, etc. on my desktop along with the program I was trying to install. I purchased this program online and they gave me a link to download it so I don't have the actual disk for it.. any now all these files are nowhere to be found. even my applications folder has 0 items in it which is odd because all the applications in my dock are there and work fine.

[Art Vandelay]

I don't see how downloading a file would cause a problem like this. It's more likely that something else caused it and it just made itself known when you tried downloading something to your desktop. Did you rename your home folder or modify your account somehow?

[CharlesS]

ls -al ~/Desktop

Post the results.

[JKT]

Your disk directory is more than likely corrupted. Do as the other person recommended and get DiskWarrior and repair the directory. Everything disappearing upon that download is probably just a coincidence or it triggered a problem that already existed. Also, how much space do you have left on your hard drive?

[kick52]

drwxr-xr-x 18 cleanuse admin 612 6 Jul 2005 The Wire - season 1 complete
drwxr-xr-x 17 cleanuse admin 578 6 Jul 2005 The Wire - season 3 complete

someone been downloading pirates eh?


have you actually tried repairing the disk?

hold (Apple) + S while starting up, and you should she a black screen. This is the 'real' terminal.
type 'fsck -y -f'

it should repair the disk. please tell us of any messages.

once its done, type exit, and it should boot into mac os x.


if thats to techie, put in your mac os x installation disc, restart and hold c just before it reboots. you should go into the mac os x installation program. click on installers application menu and click on disk utility. then repair the disk until it says it finds no problems a couple of times, and then repair permissoins, and then restart, taking out the mac os installation disc. tell us of any errors in the proccess.

[OreoCookie]

Please, people, no thread titles with a million exclamation marks!!!!!!!

[scoot]

Ignore the "your disk is hosed" replies. The "chown" command was on the right track, but is missing one crucial bit - it's not just your Desktop folder that had the wrong owner. It's everything in it, and the contents of those folders, and so forth. You need to tell it to *recursively* change ownership of the Desktop and all of its contents.

Again, in terminal, do the following, but there's a "-R" added in the chown command:

cd
chown -R cleanuser:admin Desktop

That should do the trick. If the Finder doesn't refresh after a second or two and realize you've fixed it, then you can restart it in terminal:

killall Finder

[tooki]

Originally Posted by manny_festo

I recently downloaded a music production program (FXpansion Guru) onto my desktop. Out of nowhere all the files on my desktop dissappeared. When I try to open it i get: "The folder "Desktop" could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges." I tried to repair disk permissions but no luck... I would be extremely greatful if anyone can help.

Thnk you..

Please review our rules. They explicitly prohibit using unnecessary emphasis (multiple exclamation points, "Help!", etc) in thread titles.

Thanks,
tooki

[JKT]

Originally Posted by scoot

Ignore the "your disk is hosed" replies. The "chown" command was on the right track, but is missing one crucial bit - it's not just your Desktop folder that had the wrong owner. It's everything in it, and the contents of those folders, and so forth. You need to tell it to *recursively* change ownership of the Desktop and all of its contents.

Again, in terminal, do the following, but there's a "-R" added in the chown command:

cd
chown -R cleanuser:admin Desktop

That should do the trick. If the Finder doesn't refresh after a second or two and realize you've fixed it, then you can restart it in terminal:

killall Finder

I'm going on the basis that a simple download would have zero effect on the permissions of someone's desktop. Unless the OP has forgotten to tell us something (such as the file executed and it was after that, that they weren't able to access their desktop) then there is still likely to be something wrong with the file structure of their disk.

[Art Vandelay]

Also, the OP said the files that were on his desktop are no longer there after he restored access to the desktop folder. If the files on the desktop were still set to a different owner, he'd still be able to see them.