Sharing and permissions question on a home network

TidBITS Talk
1

Having just replaced my wife’s iMac (as the previous one suddenly died), I need to re-establish links from my Mac to hers (for troubleshooting, emergency forwarding of files to her office etc.). I had previously set up shares that gave me shortcut access to particular folders. Now I can’t get to them. What do I need to do to make, for example, her Documents folder accessible to me? (When mounted on my Mac, the Documents folder states 0 bytes.)

I have tried setting RW permissions for “everyone”, but that doesn’t change anything.

Both computers are running Monterey 12.6.

Rather than writing a new manual just for me, can someone point me to an online tutorial on the industry standard way to set up shares and permissions between computers?

2

Seeing zero bytes suggests a permission problem but you shouldn’t see that if you’re logging in as an admin user. Connecting to your wife’s machine using her admin account should allow access.

My memory’s not great but there are also some constraints on sharing protocols based on disk formatting. APFS only allows sharing with SMB IIRC.

3

Maybe a solution is here?:

4

I log in as my wife (admin account) but I’m blocked from Documents, Desktop and a couple of others. Yet Photos, Downloads etc. are all available. I’ll keep trying.

5

The Take Control book is a good suggestion but it mentions sharing only in passing.

6

Out of curiosity, does she have Desktop and Documents turned on in iCloud?

7

No. Desktop and Documents are turned off. What does this tell you?

8

Nothing :smile: I was wondering if sharing of iCloud folders was allowed as I’ve never tried it.

9

Nor I! BUt I suspect it is.

10

If you’re using the virtual volume shares accessible to admins, it definitely should be working, because those give you full access.

Did you check the Privacy & Security preferences for Full Disk Access? smbd needs to be allowed. It should be automatic, but double-check it.

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11

Solved, with Sebby’s help.
Solution: In Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access > “+” (add) > [⌘⇧. to reveal hidden files] System: usr: sbin: smbd [Open].
This gives smbd (SMB daemon) full access on the host computer to the user on the remote computer.

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