Sparsebundle turns “read only” on second computer

[Andreas Kiel]

Hello Georg,

I’m Andreas and love to hear you like my app.

And I’ve heard this issue happened to several people. And meanwhile I can reproduce it — took some time.
It’s not a thing which finally has to do something with my app but an OS issue. Even if you don’t use my app it will/can happen.
By default any sparsebundle ignores ownership — which doesn’t mean that read/writes are allowed.
If you move it to another computer the “volume.database” on that computer may be corrupted or “think” the bundle isn’t allowed to do read/write action.
I’m working on a solution with my X-Files Pro and I’m getting closer.
In the meantime you have to do 2(3) things.

Log in as user who is admin.

First select the sparsebundle file (the image must be unmounted) press cmd-I and make sure everybody can read and write. Otherwise press the unlock icon, log in and change the permissions. You may have to add you as additional (admin) user.

Then mount the bundle. Select the volume icon in Finder and do the same as above.

This will work. But it’s no fun and doesn’t mean it will work on additional computer without these steps. But at least you don’t have to copy the stuff which will take way more time than those few steps.

I will have a new version of X-Files Pro at the weekend which simplifies the procedure.

-Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

[Georg P. mueller]

Hi Andreas,

Great – thanks for the info. I will try this out tomorrow when I am back at my editing table. I did check the “ignore ownership on this drive” in the mounted sparse bundle but didn’t think of checking the permissions of the unmounted file. But it does make sense!

Looking forward to the new version of X-Files Pro. I really do appreciate the work you are doing for us.

Georg

[Georg P. mueller]

Hi Andreas,

Now I am able to open the project but final cut cannot save to the sparse bundle. In finder I can write to it though.

I think I might have confused final cut with 2 projects having the same name. I now have moved the project and event on the root drive to a hidden folder. I think the project file on the sparse bundle possibly got corrupted.

Funny thing is that I can open, render and save when I load the project from the sparse bundle on my macbook pro, just not on the IMac at the office…

Ideas?

Thanks in advance

Georg

[Georg P. mueller]

Update: A shut down, waiting a few minutes and restart fixed the issue. I can now write and save into the sparse bundle. Fingers crossed the problem will not come back – if this happens with a client sitting next to me it would be annoying.

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Georg,

As said this is kind of problem with the OS.
Every machine does have it’s own volume database and every user on every machine does have it’s own as well.

Have you used the “Apply to enclosed items…” after changing permissions?

Just a note here (even though I wrote that in several other threads already) which may also help others reading this thread.

If you create a sparse image it’s one file. If it is broken, it’s broken

If you create a sparse bundle it’s a directory with sub directories.
Apple uses sparse bundles for Time Machine for the following reason(s):
If a sparse bundle is corrupted it can be repaired automatically in most cases because only parts of the directory structure might be corrupted.
In other cases Disk Utility can be used.
In both cases though data might be lost.

Also Disk Warrior may help if the sparse bundle can be mounted.

-Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Georg P. Mueller] “Now I am able to open the project but final cut cannot save to the sparse bundle.”

How do you know this. Do you get that warning about how it can’t save?

[Andreas Kiel]

[Georg P. Mueller] “Now I am able to open the project but final cut cannot save to the sparse bundle.”

[Jeremy Garchow] How do you know this. Do you get that warning about how it can’t save?

Jeremy,

Yes you will get a warning.

-Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Andreas Kiel] “Jeremy,

Yes you will get a warning.”

I get this warning sometimes, and it seems to be with certain Events, but nothing is lost and everything is saved.

Once this happens, the creation date of the Event remains frozen in time. It’s not very comforting.

[Andreas Kiel]

Just a follow up after some tests.

If you create a sparse (bundle) image with either my X-Files Pro or Disk Utility etc. the “ignore ownership” is set to true.
But settings for groups are different. This means the admin (that’s your user name) does have all rights while any other users or groups only have read access.

So to modify this you have to be the “creator” of the sparse or sparse bundle.
Or you have to be the “superuser”

So what to do:
1) unmount the “Sparse (Bundle) Volume”.
2) select sparse(bundle) file.
3) in finder info panel for this file change all entries to Read & Write
4) using the tool popup select “Apply to enclosed items…” – this only available for sparse bundles.
5) mount the image.
6) check the mounted volume the same way (steps 3 and 4)

The new beta of X-Files Pro tries to do another approach.
When creating a sparse or sparse bundle you can make it “public”.
I also includes a drag’n drop option to perform the the steps 1-6 from above.

-Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil