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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > OS asks for admin password when moving files to the trash

OS asks for admin password when moving files to the trash
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badidea
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Sep 5, 2011, 08:29 AM
 
Hi, this started to happen very suddenly - I trashed a file and it worked as usual and suddenly everytime I want to trash something else (from my downloads folder) the OS wants my admin password and deletes the file then immediately!

Here's what I did already but it didn't help:
- repaired permissions
- did a "get info" on my downloads folder, gave read&write permissions to my user and applied it to all enclosed items

There also seems to be something weird going on with the permission control - when I do a "get info" on my downloads folder I see "system", "admin" and "everyone" but my user "badidea" is not listed (the user "badidea" is an admin though). When I try to add the user "badidea" to that list nothing happens! I also have a non admin user for testing purpose and when I add that user to the list, the user "badidea" get's added instead!?!?

How can I fix this?
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cgc
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Sep 5, 2011, 02:48 PM
 
Have you done anything to your install of OSX recently? I did a reinstall and restored files from an external HDD and had weird issues like what you describe. My problem was that some of the files were linked, not copied, from the backup and were not on my boot drive. Luckily I had a second backup and lost nothing but it was really confusing...heck, I may have it all wrong it was so kooky.

If you've moved stuff between drives you may want to make sure the files you're referencing are at the location you expect them to be.
     
badidea  (op)
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Sep 5, 2011, 03:17 PM
 
No, I didn't do anything - that's why this is so weird!
I suspect that my user or the HD with my download folder doesn't have a .trash anymore because other disks are not affected.
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Waragainstsleep
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Sep 5, 2011, 03:20 PM
 
You ought to be able to create a new Downloads folder and copy the files you want to keep into that. See if that works.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
badidea  (op)
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Sep 5, 2011, 04:37 PM
 
I finally fixed it!
I already tried setting my permissions on my downloads folder as written in the first post but now I did a "get info" on my home folder and applied the changes to all enclosed items and did a 'sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash' and now it's working again!
One thing where I'd like to have a confirmation now remains: my user (badidea) is not listed in the users list when I hit "get info"! Only "system", "admin" and "everyone" and it's not possible to add the user "badidea" to that list! Is this normal because the user is an admin?
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