Export photos - you don't have permission.

[Fsiwtfrr]

Due to recent issues I decided to make a backup copy of all of my photos on my Mac. I exported to an external drive. Of the thousands of photos I had a weird error for about 150 or so, where it said I didn't have permission to export them. I've seen many strange things in the last 5-10 years as MacOS 'progresses', but this is yet another one that defies logic. It's MY PHOTO LIBRARY on MY MAC, being exported to MY DEVICE, and thousands succeeded. Any idea why less than 1% would fail to export to the same folder where the others were successful?

 

[ferrarr]

Is there a way to tell where these images came from? Someone else's device, or another user of the Mac?

 

[MacInWin]

What what the original issue that triggered this export? Could it be that the issue of "not permitted" is related to that issue?

 

[IWT]

Due to recent issues

What exactly were those issues?

Oops - just seen Jake beat me to it.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Heh, Ian, you are more of the expert here, so I'll let you take the lead.

 

[pm-r]

Any idea why less than 1% would fail to export to the same folder where the others were successful?

I have no idea at all but it's not strange to doing odd things and I don't know if it's related or not but you could look at the thread and the similar thing that was happening a few years ago to another user:

Can't export the whole photo library and many other problems

Can't export the whole photo library and … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Do the photos copy okay, but just bulk at exporting with the permissions problem?



- Patrick
=======

 

[IWT]

I am not really so much of an "expert"; but I'll share questions and possible solutions with you.

Before the detailed questions: of the 150 or so photos that won't transfer - did you take these pics yourself? Or did you download them from wherever? Or did someone else send them to you? Vital questions when "Permission Difficulties" arise.

When you've answered that, we may be able to progress; if not relevant, then:

1. We need to know exactly what the "Recent Issues" were. Why? Because that precedes your problem and might, quite reasonably be the cause or related to the cause of your difficulties.

2. Do you sync your photos with iCloud? And if so, does iCloud sync with another Apple device; eg, iPad, iPhone or another Mac? Two separate questions for which answers are needed please.

3. Where on your Mac do the "thousands" of photos reside? For example: in the Photos app; in a Folder of your own creation; in several different Folders, each representing a year or a place you've visited etc.

Believe it or not, these are highly relevant questions.

Here are more:

How did you export these thousands? For example: via USB cord (probably), and tell us about the External Drive to which you transferred these photos: eg; Storage space when empty and how much left now after transfer?

Please remember @Fsiwtfrr that we were not standing alongside you when all this business was going on. Hence the need for detailed answers

Ian

 

[pm-r]

Hence the need for detailed answers

+1.

- Patrick
=======

 

[Fsiwtfrr]

I am not really so much of an "expert"; but I'll share questions and possible solutions with you.

Before the detailed questions: of the 150 or so photos that won't transfer - did you take these pics yourself? Or did you download them from wherever? Or did someone else send them to you? Vital questions when "Permission Difficulties" arise.

When you've answered that, we may be able to progress; if not relevant, then:

1. We need to know exactly what the "Recent Issues" were. Why? Because that precedes your problem and might, quite reasonably be the cause or related to the cause of your difficulties.

2. Do you sync your photos with iCloud? And if so, does iCloud sync with another Apple device; eg, iPad, iPhone or another Mac? Two separate questions for which answers are needed please.

3. Where on your Mac do the "thousands" of photos reside? For example: in the Photos app; in a Folder of your own creation; in several different Folders, each representing a year or a place you've visited etc.

Believe it or not, these are highly relevant questions.

Here are more:

How did you export these thousands? For example: via USB cord (probably), and tell us about the External Drive to which you transferred these photos: eg; Storage space when empty and how much left now after transfer?

Please remember @Fsiwtfrr that we were not standing alongside you when all this business was going on. Hence the need for detailed answers

Recent issues: When browsing, I put Safari to the side to look at something else, then when I bring the window back in, it opens the PREVIOUS website for a few seconds then goes to the website I had open before I minimized. That’s strange, and not secure. I can no longer clone my mac unless I buy an external app when I used to be able to cli to an external in case of issues, but Apple took away my privilege to clone MY system. Several other less than positive changes over the last few years, but none of which have anything to do with photos. Most of the photos were mine, some were sent vis messages, some were downloaded, but many of each subtype did export. So it seems based on the questions that if I physically save a picture to my system on my hard drive, and add it to my library, I might not have permissions? Yet another “issue”. Icloud =yes, and my photos sync on all of my “i’ devices but 2 smaller older ones with insufficient storage. so 5, and my macs. Exported to a small usb drive, 500mb, total, 400gb free prior, then 379gb free after export. Exported photos were exported from the photo library, not copied from a different location.

Thanks for the help!
Oh, almost forgot : I DID do step one in troubleshooting, I called it names when I saw the errors. lol

I have no idea at all but it's not strange to doing odd things and I don't know if it's related or not but you could look at the thread and the similar thing that was happening a few years ago to another user:

Can't export the whole photo library and … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Do the photos copy okay, but just bulk at exporting with the permissions problem?



- Patrick
=======

Great article, didn’t solve the issue but I made notes for future issue, thanks!

 

[MacInWin]

Recent issues: When browsing, I put Safari to the side to look at something else, then when I bring the window back in, it opens the PREVIOUS website for a few seconds then goes to the website I had open before I minimized. That’s strange, and not secure. I can no longer clone my mac unless I buy an external app when I used to be able to cli to an external in case of issues, but Apple took away my privilege to clone MY system. Several other less than positive changes over the last few years, but none of which have anything to do with photos. Most of the photos were mine, some were sent vis messages, some were downloaded, but many of each subtype did export. So it seems based on the questions that if I physically save a picture to my system on my hard drive, and add it to my library, I might not have permissions? Yet another “issue”. Icloud =yes, and my photos sync on all of my “i’ devices but 2 smaller older ones with insufficient storage. so 5, and my macs. Exported to a small usb drive, 500mb, total, 400gb free prior, then 379gb free after export. Exported photos were exported from the photo library, not copied from a different location.

i pulled your answer out of the previous post as you had embedded it inside the quote of Ian's post and it was a bit hard to detect. (That happens a lot, so don't feel bad about that.)

We didn't ask what version of macOS or what Mac you are talking about but I would venture a guess that you are running Sonoma. Apple has changed security on ALL Macs running Sonoma, and if you are on a newer Mac with an Mx chip in it, the changes are even more striking. The system is no longer run from a system on the drive directly, but on a snapshot of the system. The reason is security. If you get malware that tries to change something in the system, it cannot change the actual system, just the snapshot, which is recreated every time you boot. (It's also checked that it still agrees with what Apple thinks is the "correct" system through a series of hashes that are checked on each boot.) What that then means is that the need for a true clone of the entire system is no longer there, so the cli doesn't make a clone any more, as you noted. Even third party software doesn't really make a clone any more, despite claiming to do so. They can't access the Secure version of the OS any more than you can. I don't want to drag this thread away from the issue with exporting your images, but I don't think the inability to clone from the cli has anything to do with the issue at all.

About the only thing I can think of at all is that the affected images had an ownership that gave you, as the operator, read only privileges. That is set in the metadata of the file, which Photos preserves, so maybe when when tried to export you didn't have permissions to write it? I've never run into that situation, so it's just a guess. I don't have any suggestion about how to get around that except maybe to do some trivial edit on the file, leave the editor, then export the edited image, not the original. Maybe that action will work around and read-only issue?

 

[Fsiwtfrr]

i pulled your answer out of the previous post as you had embedded it inside the quote of Ian's post and it was a bit hard to detect. (That happens a lot, so don't feel bad about that.)

We didn't ask what version of macOS or what Mac you are talking about but I would venture a guess that you are running Sonoma. Apple has changed security on ALL Macs running Sonoma, and if you are on a newer Mac with an Mx chip in it, the changes are even more striking. The system is no longer run from a system on the drive directly, but on a snapshot of the system. The reason is security. If you get malware that tries to change something in the system, it cannot change the actual system, just the snapshot, which is recreated every time you boot. (It's also checked that it still agrees with what Apple thinks is the "correct" system through a series of hashes that are checked on each boot.) What that then means is that the need for a true clone of the entire system is no longer there, so the cli doesn't make a clone any more, as you noted. Even third party software doesn't really make a clone any more, despite claiming to do so. They can't access the Secure version of the OS any more than you can. I don't want to drag this thread away from the issue with exporting your images, but I don't think the inability to clone from the cli has anything to do with the issue at all.

About the only thing I can think of at all is that the affected images had an ownership that gave you, as the operator, read only privileges. That is set in the metadata of the file, which Photos preserves, so maybe when when tried to export you didn't have permissions to write it? I've never run into that situation, so it's just a guess. I don't have any suggestion about how to get around that except maybe to do some trivial edit on the file, leave the editor, then export the edited image, not the original. Maybe that action will work around and read-only issue?

Is there a way to see the export log once again? I can just go through the list, w. prtscrn>to the export vol and get them there that way? Yes, OS=Sonoma. And yes I agree the inability to clone is unrelated.

 

[MacInWin]

What export log? I've never heard of Photos having a log of exports. Does the question mean you don't know which images did not get exported?

Using printscreen or screensave will not save the metadata for you. The resolution will most likely suffer as well, as it will be limited to the pixel dimensions of the screen. It will let you get something, but nothing like the originals.