Users and Permissions problems: Can’t access my own files, need password for any Finder action, etc.

Tuffy Nicolas wrote:

I have four interlinked problems involving User accounts and Permissions. Any help or suggestions solving any of these individually, or all of them as a group simultaneously, would be greatly appreciated. Here are my four problems (which are all connected):

1. I have two User accounts: a primary admin account, and a secondary “Other Users” account. I recently used Migration Assistant to move all my data from an old computer onto this computer, and (following Apple’s advice) when I migrated, I clicked the box to create a new User into which account all the data would be moved (to prevent accidentally overwriting data in the recipient computer’s original main User account). But now I have a huge problem that I don’t know how to fix: ALL my migrated files have, as their permissions, “Read & Write” for this secondary “Other Users” account, but merely “Read only” for the primary admin account. As a result, I can’t make any changes to any files while logged into my primary admin User account — if I try, I get an error message that says “You don’t own the file “filename” and don’t have permission to write to it.” How can I fix this, so that all my files are “Read & Write” with full access for my main admin User account?

How are you even accessing these files since the Finder will not allow you to see beyond the root of the other user's home folder? If you can access those files, then dragging & dropping them to your home folder will prompt you for your admin password....once transferred using the Finder those items should have your admin user's permissions associated with them.

Another option is to use the paid third party app Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) with free trial period to transfer the files. CCC will prompt you for your admin password so it can access the other home user folder allowing you to select & deselect items to transfer. I'm not certain if CCC changes any permissions or not.

If not, once transferred you can use macOS to change the permissions using the instructions in the following Apple article (I guess you could do this to the other home user folder if you are going to delete it anyway once the data has been transferred):

Change permissions for files, folders, or disks on Mac - Apple Support

2. Any time I try to do any action in the Finder (such a moving a file to the trash, or renaming a file, or creating a new folder, etc), I get a popup message that says, “Finder wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this. Username:_____ Password: _____”. I want to be able to make any changes that I want to the Finder without having to ask permission every single time. How to fix this?

See last paragraph of previous answer to change permissions. Or highlight all of the items at once which you want to delete so you are only prompted one time for the admin password.

3. I don’t like the main name (not sure if this is called the “full name” or the ”account name”) of my primary admin User account. Is there any way to change it?

Yes, it can be changed if you are extremely careful. Before making the attempt, you need to make sure you have a good backup of the system so if a mistake is made, then you can restore from a backup. See the instructions in the following Apple article......every step must be followed exactly (there is only one optional step):

Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support

4. I have no need for the secondary “Other Users” account, which was only created for the purposes of the Migration Assistant. What would happen if I deleted it, prior to fixing “Problem 1” above? What about deleting it after fixing Problem 1?

It should have no bearing on any files within your own home user folder although I don't know how the Finder will report on the user name associated with the ownership permissions if the other account has been deleted.