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I changed Macintosh HD file so it has read and write permissions for myself. Inside the Macintosh HD file I want to change the System file so it also has read and write permissions for myself. When I try to do this I get an error saying

"The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have the necessary permission."

How do I get around this so I have permission?

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I do have administrator access to the computer.

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    That sounds like a terrible idea. What are you actually trying to do? Also, please restore a backup. Altering these permissions compromises security.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 22:13

4 Answers 4

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El Capitan has a new feature called System Integrity Protection, which restricts what you can do even with admin or root access (see this apple.se question. Among other things, it prevents you from modifying /System.

It is possible to turn it off (again, see that other question), but it's generally a bad idea. You shouldn't be modifying /System without really good reason. Local customizations should generally be made in /Library instead (that's more or less what it's there for).

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  • This doesn't answer the question. Why is the main admin account blocked from sharing the hard drive with itself?
    – Leon
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 20:27
  • @Leon Are you asking why Apple added this restriction? If so, it's to prevent malware from modifying the system; there's no technical way to tell the difference between malware running as you doing things you don't intend vs. non-malicious software running as you making system changes you do intend, so it has to just block all system changes, no matter what user ID they're running uder.
    – Gordon Davisson
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 23:16
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Have you tried:

sudo bash

Should prompt you for your personal password. Will switch your user to root & you should be able to "chmod -R g+w /System" to your hearts content.

If it doesn't let you in, you probably aren't an admin user on the machine .... so won't be a sudoer .....

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  • For sure sudo /bin/bash is more safe than sudo bash (from the point of view of a trojan). BTW, if it works, why not directly sudo /bin/chmod -R g+w /System ?
    – Hastur
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 13:38
  • You must work in security with max paranoia setting :) Doing direct sudo would achieve the same thing - testing whether user is an admin - sudo bash is quicker to type. Could have suggested running groups - looking for wheel and/or admin groups - but just adds complication.
    – Ian Ellis
    Commented Jan 2, 2016 at 19:41
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You don't have the necessary permissions because you are probably not logged in as System (in your case). Please type whoami on Terminal and paste the output here. It will show which user you are logged in as. If it's not System, then you may want to switch to System and then do the operations that require read-write privileges. Otherwise, prefix your operations using sudo in Terminal -- will prompt you for the password.

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  • drwxr-xr-x@ 4 root wheel 136 Dec 16 10:17 System. When I do 'sudo chmod g+w System' it asks for my password and then says >chmod: Unable to change file mode on System: Operation not permitted
    – blembo
    Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 23:20
  • User has admin rights but will still encounter this issue.
    – Robino
    Commented Feb 18, 2017 at 9:59
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you're doing it all wrong all of you.

type "csrutil disable" no quotes, in terminal hit enter enter passcide, enjoy and do what you want (including installing any software that previously failed depending in where it came from, you can also enable "install from anywhere after this in your security settings if you so choose and know what your doing and what not to do etc....if you have other people downloading and pirating stuff etc on your machine prob best to leave this in. I have NO ONE on my Mac EVER...

it's no different than turning off everything you have with the above.

I had to turn off the crs utility in order to remove the arrow from alias shortcuts in High Sierra or Sierra. This is how you do it....every alias from now on won't have the arrow and you only need the car turned on if you aren't safe in yourself and where you browse or have other people on your Mac. Mines been off for almost a year and not a single malware, hack, popups etc but I also know how to browse safely and what not to install it click on etc etc etc. it's find to disable if you trust your computer experience.

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