Disk Permissions (?) Issue With New Mac Mini G4

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hi, everyone. I've got a frustrating issue with my new Mac Mini G4. Basically, an Applescript that I've used for years refuses to work, and times out instead of copying a file as it's supposed to. (This is not a KM issue, although my Applescript is running inside of KM.)

Basically, I set up my new Mac Mini G4 by restoring it from my laptop's Time Machine backup for ease of use. Everything works, except for this one script. Basically it is a command to duplicate a selected file from an external disk to a folder on the same external disk. It worked fine on the last version of this Mac Mini (a M2), and it works on my laptop. But on the M4 Mac Mini, the script times out 100% of the time.

Things I've tried: checking that all apps have permissions for everything, like accessibility, full disk access, . I also tried turning off disk access and turning it on again. Obviously it's some dumb setting, but if the restore from backup was bad, my next step will be to wipe the machine and manually reinstall everything (ugh).

One question I had was, does full disk access automatically encompass apps that "want to access data on a removable device"? Since the disk is external on the new M4 Mac Mini and things work fine on my laptop (where all files are on the local volume).

For reference, my script (well one I wrote to demonstrate the issue) is here:

--testing duplicating of files 
set whichComputer to "Mac Mini" -- new Mac Mini
--set whichComuter to "Macbook" -- my Macbook AIr

tell application "Finder"
	set theSel to selection
	
	-- this times out when it's run from the new Mac
	if whichComputer = "Mac Mini" then
		duplicate item 1 of theSel to folder "POST" of folder "archive" of folder "peter sync" of folder "BTSync" of folder "documents" of folder "pp" of folder "users" of disk "Home Raid" with replacing
	end if
	if whichComputer = "Macbook" then
		--this version does not time out 
		duplicate item 1 of theSel to folder "POST" of folder "archive" of folder "peter sync" of folder "BTSync" of folder "documents" of folder "pp" of folder "users" of disk "Macbook" with replacing
	end if
end tell

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer!

2

Quick [obvious] question: Are you running the same operating system on the M4 as the M2? I read that you restored the Time Machine backup, but in my experience that doesn't necessarily mean that the operating system remains the same if the newer machine is already on a newer OS.

3

Agreed.

4

Yes -- but that shouldn't be a problem because you're doing the move with the Finder. If you can copy the file manually you should be able to do it with AS.

Out of interest, what do you get if you run

tell application "Finder"
	every disk whose name contains "Raid"
end tell

Usual reason for a timeout on that command would be that the disk you're referencing isn't available.

5

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the lateness of mine. I normally get

{disk "Home Raid" of application "Finder"}

so it seems to see it.

6

Yes both systems are fully updated and on the same OS version. 15.1 (24B2082)

7

Just as importantly, you aren't something like

{disk "Home Raid" of application "Finder", disk "Home Raid-1" of application "Finder"}

...which would indicate an ungraceful disconnect and a remount of you RAID -- something I've seen break paths before.

Your script works for me (albeit targeting a thumb drive) even after reproducing your folder structure, so it isn't OS security blocking access to folders named users, documents, etc.

All I can think of is permissions -- your account UID on your new Mac being different to that on your old. Have you checked that you can perform the same operation manually in the Finder?

8

I figured out what it was! I had formatted the SSD in AFPS but with case sensitive. This is obviously not a good situation for compatibility, and the error was coming from my scripts not being able to see the files I wanted them to see due to the case being wrong. I reformatted and things are looking great!

1 Like
9

Turns out it was that I had formatted my SSD with AFPS case sensitive. Lesson learned!

10

Ooooh! Nice catch!