User Folder Permissions Problem

chrigil

Registered
I have created a Standard account on my Mac for my girlfriend but even as an Administrator I am unable to view her folders within her user folder i.e. Music, Desktop, Documents etc.

Can anyone tell me how I can set it so that I can view all her folders and files? I have tried setting the permissions on her folders to various things but its not quite working the way i expected.

Any hints?

Thanks in advance,

Chris Gilbert
 
You're asking us how to spy on your girlfriend? ;) She can put files and folders she wants you to see in her public folder. And vice versa, of course... You can also use the Terminal, of course. If you "sudo -s" and authenticate, you can go to the directories, of course, since you're root then. But the Finder is not authenticated, you're looking at the files and directories from your user's perspective in the Finder, which hasn't got the rights to her files and folders.
 
I'm not asking how to spy on her. I don't think it would be that exciting anyway lol.

I want to be able to drop stuff directly to her Desktop or Music folder without using the Drop Box. How do I make ALL her files and folders viewable to everyone? I just can't seem to get it to work.

Thanks in advance,

Chris
 
Does anyone have any ideas? I have been trying to solve this problem for a couple of weeks now and its really annoying me.

Please???

Chris
 
The first way ist to log in as root. Bad idea, since you run the risk of messing things up in a bad way.

The second way is to run Finder as root. Bad idea for the same reason.

The third way is to run another file browser, like PathFinder (actually a lot more than a file browser, but I digress) as root. Bad idea, same as above.

Fourth option: do what fryke suggests. Use Terminal. Not good, but nowhere nearly as bad as the other options.

Fifth option: make sure that both accounts belong to the same group, and give that group full privileges to the folders you both need to share. This is also not a very good idea, and might break on system updates.

Sixth option: use the folder "/Users/Shared". You can even put a folder in there, and then make aliases to that folder on your respective desktops. This actually works, and involves practically no risk. It even survives system updates, since that is exactly why /Users/Shared exists. To allow users to share stuff with each other, without exposing eithers folders.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I have to say however that I am pretty incredulous to the fact that something so simple is virtually impossible without putting your computer at risk. I understand the idea behind limited permissions etc but ultimately i should be able to access ANY area on my computer at any time if i choose to set it up that way.

Crazy, just crazy.

Thanks anyway (my rant is over now ;-)

Chris
 
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