What are disk permissions and why do they need repairing?
Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac. Disk Utility can fix certain disk problems—for example, multiple apps quit unexpectedly, a file is corrupted, an external device doesn’t work properly, or your computer won’t start up. Disk Utility can’t detect or repair all problems that a disk may have. Step 4: Type in reboot to restart your Mac. Solution 3: Use repair tools. If these system utilities can't repair the APFS disk, you can try some third-party repair software. Disk Warrior, developed by Alsoft, is the most famous one. Unfortunately, the latest version of Disk Warrior can only recognize but not repair APFS disks.
Disk permissions on macOS are used to keep your files secure. They’re designed so that certain programs (or other users if you share your Mac) can’t just dip into a system file they have no business with and modify it. They’d need permission to do that.
Every file and folder on your Mac comes with an associated set of permissions. From the Apple Community:
“Many things you install in Mac OS X are installed from package files (whose filename extension is '.pkg'). Each time something is installed from a package file, a 'Bill of Materials' file (whose filename extension is '.bom') is stored in the package's receipt file, which is kept in /Library/Receipts/ in Mac OS X v10.5 and earlier. These files don't take up much disk space and you shouldn't put them in the Trash. Each of those '.bom' files contains a list of the files installed by that package, and the proper permissions for each file.”
Unfortunately, these permissions can easily become messed up unintentionally. It’s quite common for this to happen when installing and uninstalling apps on your system. And when it does, apps can find themselves with free reign to alter files and modify read-only files which can cause all kinds of permission errors and system issues such as lagging, freezing, or crashing.
If you notice anything out of the norm regarding system performance, the first thing you should do is troubleshoot those disk permissions.
Below we’ll show you two ways: the manual and the easy one. Choose the way that works best for you.
- Stellar Volume Repair is a professional hard disk repair software on the Mac platform. With the tool, you will be in a position to rebuild any damaged directory, repair errors in volumes, and to replace old directories to restore your Mac device. The tool is user-friendly and easy to use. Puran for Windows.
- Disk Drill puts the emphasis on easy. You shouldn’t have to be a Macintosh expert to recover files. We have designed our app to ensure that you don’t have to spend hours figuring out a new software. And our online knowledge base provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for each Disk Drill feature.
- Doing so is easy since Disk Utility is the best free tool available on macOS to repair a drive. If your MacBook is running slow after Catalina 10.15 upgrade or your iMac is crashing, then don't hesitate to fix your Mac’s in-built storage drive (SSD or HDD). Disk Utility Repair Video Tutorial and Steps are as follows.
How to repair permissions on Mac: The manual way
If you’re running an older version of macOS, Disk Utility is the go-to tool for troubleshooting problems.
Why an older version?
Because as of macOS version 10.11 El Capitan, Disk Utility no longer comes with the option 'repair disk permissions'. Boooo!
Apple even removed the command line:
But there’s a method to the madness. macOS now comes with a feature called System Integrity Performance (SIP) which is designed to automatically repair file permissions during software updates and system changes. SIP works by restricting the root account so that it can’t do things like modify protected locations and processes such as /System and /usr. This should prevent malware from gaining root permissions and infecting your system files.
Anyway, back to using Disk Utility to repair disk permissions. If you’re running a pre-El Capitan version of macOS, follow these steps:
1. Press Command + Space to open Spotlight, type in “Disk Utility”, and hit Enter.
2. Select Macintosh HD from the left sidebar menu.
3. Click on the First Aid tab.
4. Click on Verify Disk Permissions. By taking this step, Disk Utility will work through your hard drive to detect broken or misbehaving permissions and list them for repair. This might take a few minutes but you can check the Show details box to keep an eye on its progress.
5. Click on Repair Disk Permissions and wait while Disk Utility runs through the identified permissions to fix them.
If disk permission issues have played such havoc that your Mac won’t boot correctly, it’s possible to access Disk Utility in Recovery Mode. Do this by holding Command + R during bootup.
If you’re installing a newer (or older) version of macOS on top of your existing operating system, Mac will perform a disk permission repair as a part of the installation so that you start from a clean slate.
How to repair disk permissions on Mac: The easy way
For users of macOS versions El Capitan and newer, the removal of Repair Disk Permissions means you have no troubleshooting solution to turn to in if your Mac is ailing.
But worry not, CleanMyMac X is the hero you need.
CleanMyMac is like Disk Utility in that it does all of the heavy lifting for you to verify permissions and repair your Mac’s disk.
Even System Integrity Performance running quietly in the background doesn’t prevent certain issues from arising. If you’re suffering from any of the following problems, boot up CleanMyMac and have it take care of business:
- Improper functioning of applications.
- Inability to move or delete files.
- Inability to access files.
If you Mac appears to be running fine, it’s still worth running repairs every so often to ensure it stays that way. Not all broken permissions affect performance but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be fixed.
Repairing Disk Permissions in a few clicks
First things first, you’ll need to download CleanMyMac X. You can do that here. It’s free so you won’t need your credit card. Once that’s done, follow these five steps:
1. Launch CleanMyMac.
2. Click on Maintenance from the left sidebar menu.
3. Check the box next to Repair Disk Permissions.
4. Click Run.
CleanMyMac will scan your system to verify disk permissions and automatically repair permissions that are found to be faulty. When the task is complete, you’ll be able to view a log of all the permissions that were repaired.
And that’s all there is to it. Your Mac should now be running as intended.
Disk permissions are critical to your system’s security and performance but only when they’re working as they should. Use CleanMyMac to verify and repair disk permissions whenever you run into issues with apps or files for a healthy running Mac.
Enjoy a clean, happy Mac!
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With the release of macOS High Sierra 10.13, Mojave 10.14, and the latest macOS Catalina 10.15, lots of people have upgraded their systems and converted their internal SSD or external hard drive to the new file system APFS. Since APFS is a completely new file system, it contains many bugs needed to be fixed and you may have a hard time using it. Chances that one of APFS disk gets corrupted. As a result, all data on the drive becomes inaccessible. There is no need to worry as this passage will show you solutions to rebuild/repair APFS disk without losing data.
How to rebuild APFS disk?
Recommended: Back up from APFS disk at first.
When your APFS disk gets corrupted, all data on the drive is so fragile that any operation will overwrite the original data. Therefore, the first step is always to make sure you have backed up important data. If you don't make any backup, you can recover all lost data back with the help of professional APFS data recovery software. Don't have any important data? Please skip to the solutions.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is thebest APFS data recovery utility that works well in different data loss scenarios. It is able to recover lost data from corrupted APFS disk,recover lost data from formatted APFS drive, recover lost data from unmountable APFS drive, recover lost data from unreadable APFS drive,recover deleted/lost APFS volume.
Aside from APFS data recovery, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac also recovers data from HFS, HFS+, FAT32, exFAT drives. It supports more than 500+ file types, including documents, pictures, audios, videos, emails, etc. and different storage devices such as hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, etc. It is compatible with macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/Sierra 10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Follow the steps below to recover lost data from APFS disk:
Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
Step 2: Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Step 3: Select the APFS disk and click 'Next' to scan all lost files.
Step 4: Preview the scanning results, choose files we need, and click 'Recover' to get them back.
Step 5: Have a check to ensure all lost files have been successfully recovered.
Solution 1: Repair APFS disk with Disk Utility
Disk Utility's First Aid is a tiny tool designed to repair minor problems of a disk. It can not only repair the corrupted disk structure but also the damaged file system.
Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue.
Step 2: In the sidebar, select the APFS disk you want to repair.
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Step 3: Click the First Aid button and click Run.
Solution 2: Run FSCK command in Single User Mode
FSCK is a useful tool to check the consistency of a file system. To rebuild APFS disk, you can boot your Mac into Single User Mode and run FSCK command.
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Step 1: Restart your Mac and, before the Apple logo appears, hold down Command and S keys. This will boot your Mac into Single User Mode.
Step 2: Type in: /sbin/fsck -fy.
Step 3: If you see 'File system was modified', then re-type in the command again until you see 'The volume [name] appears to be OK'.
Step 4: Type in reboot to restart your Mac.
Disk Repair Utility For Mac
Solution 3: Use repair tools
If these system utilities can't repair the APFS disk, you can try some third-party repair software. Disk Warrior, developed by Alsoft, is the most famous one. Unfortunately, the latest version of Disk Warrior can only recognize but not repair APFS disks.
Solution 4: Erase APFS disk to rebuild APFS disk
As any file system corruption can be easily fixed by reformatting or erasing, you can rebuild APFS disk in this way. But reformatting will remove all data on the APFS disk, please back up with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac at first.
• How to erase APFS external hard disk on Mac?
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Still have questions?