Full Disk Access on OSX

In recent versions of OSX, Apple continues to lock down more data, preventing access using non-Apple software. As a backup application, HashBackup needs access to everything to do a complete backup, but errors like these frequently occur:

Unable to list directory: Operation not permitted: /Users/jim/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail
Unable to open file: Operation not permitted: /Users/jim/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail-shared.plist

To eliminate these errors and grant HashBackup access to everything on your disk, allowing a complete backup:

  1. when running HashBackup automatically with a cron job, the cron program must be given Full Disk Access.

  2. when running HashBackup interactively from a Terminal session, the Terminal app must be given Full Disk Access as described below, and HashBackup commands must be run as root by using sudo.

Enabling Full Disk Access for cron:

  1. Apple icon in the top left corner

  2. System Preferences…​

  3. Security and Privacy

  4. Privacy tab

  5. Full Disk Access on the left

  6. If the lock (bottom left) is locked, click it and enter your password

  7. Switch to Finder (hold Command, hit Tab)

  8. Go, Go To Folder, enter /usr/sbin/cron

  9. Finder will show the cron icon

  10. Drag cron to the Full Disk Access application list back in the Security & Privacy window

Enabling Full Disk Access for Terminal:

  1. Plus sign at the bottom of the application list to add an application

  2. Applications on the left

  3. Utilities

  4. Terminal

These directions will enable Full Disk Access to any application running in Terminal or from crontab.

Once you have Full Disk Access enabled, use sudo to run HashBackup interactively in Terminal:

$ sudo hb backup -c backupdir /Users
Password:
HashBackup #2677 Copyright 2009-2022 HashBackup, LLC
Backup directory: /hbbackup
Backup start: 2022-01-19 22:31:46
...

After enabling Full Disk Access you can setup automated backups.

If you have trouble, see similar instructions with screenshots.