Why do disk permissions need repair

Then click the Plus button and add the Terminal app. After doing this, proceed through the above Terminal commands mentioned for High Sierra and earlier. When the option to repair disk permissions vanished from the Disk Utility app, we didn't think much of it because it was never an important troubleshooting step. But seeing the type of problems you might encounter because of incorrect permissions, it's clear that resetting permissions for your Home folder is the last resort when these issues crop up.

It's surprising to see that Apple doesn't include this option anymore. But remember, you should only apply these steps when necessary. Understanding permissions is a complex topic.

If you understand how macOS user accounts work, it'll become a lot simpler. Read this guide to setting up multiple user accounts on a Mac to learn more. Learn how to set up your home network securely, keeping your devices and data safe at all times. With his M. Writing and teaching others is always his passion. He now writes about technology and make it digestible for readers who don't understand it well.

How to Set Up a Secure Home Network Learn how to set up your home network securely, keeping your devices and data safe at all times. Share Share Tweet Email. Rahul Saigal Articles Published. Subscribe to our newsletter Join our newsletter for tech tips, reviews, free ebooks, and exclusive deals! Never delete files in any of the receipts folders cited above unless specifically instructed to do so by a Mac OS X troubleshoting expert.

It is important to understand that Repair Disk Permissions only verifies and repairs the permissions of Apple-originated objects with Apple-originated receipts. This means that Repair Disk Permissions will not correct permissions problems on:. Repair Disk Permissions often produces messages while it is running. These messages are generally of an informational nature and can usually be ignored.

Some of these messages may be repeated every time Repair Disk Permissions is run as the receipt for the object in question is forcing the setting of specific permissions, even if no correction is required. Again, these can also be ignored. Only messages indicating the failure of the Repair Disk Permissions process, or the inability to correct permissions on a specific file or folder, should be of concern. Power outages, hard restarts, and system crashes can lead to disk directory corruption, requiring the use Repair Disk to correct such.

File System Journaling , introduced in Panther as a default setting for your Mac OS X startup disk, can help minimize the impact of such events on the disk's directory.

However, even journaling is not foolproof. For additional details, see our "Data corruption and loss: causes and avoidance" FAQ. Accordingly, you should run Repair Disk Permissions after installing any third-party software that employs its own installer. In general, given the choice between the Verify or Repair buttons in Disk Utility, select Repair to save time. Verify only checks for problems. If problems are found, you then need to run the corresponding Repair. Repair both verifies and, if problems are found, attempts to perform the required repair.

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