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Permission to write but NOT overwrite files on external drive

Hi,

since very recently whenever I try to overwrite an image (photo) file on an external hard drive, i get an error stating I cannot save the file because there is no access permission granted. It's happening primarily in photoshop. If I want to save the image with a new name, there's no problem. The problem occurs when I want to save a new version by overwriting the existing file. Now I need to save the file under a unique name, delete the older version, and rename the new version to the original file name.


It also happens when I download a new file which is sent to me through wetransfer. Again I get an error stating there is no permission to write to the external hard drive. The workaround for that is to save to the local hard drive and then simply move the file to the external hard drive.


Again, this is something which started happening recently. It could be as a result of installing Monterrey. Also Photoshop is a new installation.


Any thoughts on this?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.4

Posted on May 30, 2022 10:20 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 30, 2022 11:43 PM

> The external drive is also used for Time Machine backups.


The best practice is to dedicate the whole external disk to Time Machine (or at least add a regular APFS volume for other use).


https://eclecticlight.co/2022/05/20/how-to-make-more-use-of-your-backup-disk/

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4 replies

May 30, 2022 11:27 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for the reply. Appreciated. I just tried to do what you advised, but there is no option to ignore ownership. The external drive is also used for Time Machine backups.


The permissions as setup now are:

myself (admin): read and write

guest account: read only

system: read and write

wheel: read and write

everyone: read only

Permission to write but NOT overwrite files on external drive

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