How To… Repair Permissions On The Mac, And What That Means

Whenever your Mac slows down, crashes frequently, or exhibits erratic behavior a good first step is to Repair Permissions.

What Are Permissions?

Every file and folder on your hard disk has an associated set of permissions that determines who can read, write to, or execute it. (Apple Support.com) Problems occur when permissions get changed.

How Do Permissions Get Changed?

It can happen in in numerous ways:

• An application with a faulty installation pkg.
• A machine crash in the middle of a task or installation.
• Battery issues or general power supply issues.
• Changes made accidentally by someone with Administrator privileges
• And many, many more…

Okay, So How Do I Repair Permissions?

First, shut down all the applications on your Mac. They don’t interfere with the process, but they leave it less power to work with so it takes longer.

• Go to the Finder.
• In the sidebar, click on the Applications folder.
• Scroll to the bottom and you’ll find the Utilities folder
• Inside the Utilities folder you’ll find the application Disk Utility. Double click to open it.

• Make sure you are in the First Aid tab.
• On the left-hand sidebar, you’ll see a disk drive with a long number. Directly underneath you should see a partition called Macintosh HD.
• In my case, I renamed it Macbook Pro HD, but the factory default is Macintosh HD.
• Click on Macintosh HD.

• On the bottom you’ll see a button Repair Permissions. Go ahead and click it.
• Repair Permissions will start. You’ll be given an approximate time.
• Row upon row of logged permission changes will appear. Don’t worry about them.

• Once permissions repair is finished, the last log entry states Permissions Repair Is Complete

• Go ahead and quit Disk Utility.Restart your Mac and see if the process has helped. Good luck. Have a great week.