Avoid drop box file permission issues

Oct 08, '08 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: kirkmc

On the Macs in my home, we have permissions issues when copying files into other users' Drop Boxes. If my wife, for example, sends me a file via the Drop Box, and I move it to another folder, the permissions are not appropriate for me -- files only open as read only, because the ownership is not correct. So to use files sent this way, we have to Option-drag them from the Drop Box. This creates a copy, with the appropriate ownership.

I'm not sure if this happens to others, but for us, it's an annoyance. As long, however, as we Option-drag, we can use the files as we want to.

[robg adds: I don't see this issue here, and in talking with Kirk about the problem, we compared the Permissions section of the Get Info dialog for our Drop Box folders. On my machines, including a brand-new iMac that's fresh from the factory, there are two entries for my user in the Permissions section -- one with Custom privileges, and one with Read & Write privileges. On his machines, the Custom permissions entry is missing.

I found this thread on our forums that talks about the same problem ... what makes this really odd, though, is that it doesn't seem to be universal, as it's working well here. If anyone has an explanation/permanent fix for this odd behavior, please post in the comments -- repairing permissions doesn't help, because that won't change things within the user's folder (and yes, Kirk tried it anyway).]

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