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I have an 8TB external drive with 6.33 TB used and 1.67 TB available.
I have a 3.28 TB folder that is dimmed out so I cannot open it.
Is there a way to open it through Terminal, or some other way? It has contents I really need.
All the other folders on the drive are accessible.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 15.0
Is that also an external boot drive? I see the System Folder and other items on the root. If so, that may be part of the problem since that would break the ability to boot the external drive since the root of a macOS 10.15+ boot volume has been read-only (and signed & sealed since 11.x+).
An external data drive should have "Ignore Ownership on this volume" checked, but you do NOT want to do that if it is also an external boot drive.
The greyed out/ghosted folder means you don't have permissions which is confirmed by the screenshot from Get Info. It should show you as owner, but you should be able to read the contents unless some other ACL has been set on that folder.
You need to create a new APFS volume for storing data if you want it outside of the "/Users" folder of any boot drive. Then maybe you can select "Ignore Ownership on this volume" without it affecting the ability of the OS to boot on that external drive.
Your current method is going to lead you into a lot of trouble & a huge mess someday if it hasn't done so already.
I hope you have a good backup of your main boot drive and the external drive including the items outside of the home user folder(s).
Is that folder retrieved from some backup (you might want to backup before trying any fixes anyway)? Did the copy process finish successfully? Does safe boot help? Does any of the below help? Maybe changing folder creation date with setfile might help (Jan 24 1984 is the date of Steve Jobs' announcement of the first Mac).
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/216230/grayed-out-folder-wont-open-in-finder
A screenshot, folder path, and drive format and Finder Get Info permission details might provide more clue to the matter.
All good questions and suggestions. I believe I copied the folder directly from one external drive to another but can't say for certain. I did not notice the 1984 date before but will try your suggestions and let you know how I fare. Thanks so much for your replies.
Hi, it is not a boot drive, I had just copied those folders from a drive I was going to reformat. I have two different 8TB drives because I have a vacation home and leave a drive at each place. Thanks for the tips, I will check out the permissions too, to see if that helps.
Sorry scroll up for the first of two screen shots.
The setfile Terminal command worked @Matti Haveri ... TYVM!
3.28 TB folder on external drive is dim
