I've been using QRecall to keep an archive of our cablecast files, which are either .mov, .mp4 or .mpeg2 format. I'm doing that over the network -- I have my computer backup the cablecast machine to an external harddrive.

Yesterday, a whole folder of PSA's disappeared, so I restored the directory to the cablecast machine. I got the following message on each item restored:

Some properties of YourVideoNameHere.mov not restored.

Sure enough, the finder info window tells me that the Owner has Read & Write Access, as does the Group and Others. It says that I have no access though. The shell shows permissions as -rw-rw-rw.

Finder can preview the video, and Quicktime can load it, but double-clicking on the file gives the message The item "YourVideoNameHere.mov" is in use right now and cannot be opened. Try again when the current task (such as moving or copying an item or emptying the trash) is complete.

Rebooting both the cablecast machine and my machine doesn't change anything.

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Kevin

I'm assuming that you are accessing the files on the cablecast machine via some sort of file sharing.

The problem is probably permissions. When you access files on local drives, the operating system restricts access based on your logged in user ID. You are limited to what files you have access to and what properties you can set. For example, you can't change the ownership of a file that you don't own.

When you pre-authorize QRecall to use administrative privileges, it lets QRecall run as root which gives it carte blanche access to read and write any file or permission set on your local volumes.

For network volumes the same rules generally apply, but the access given is granted by the remote file service not the local operating system. So it doesn't matter if you run QRecall as root or not, what privileges you have on the remote volume are determined by how you logged in to the remote service.

I suspect that you connected to the comcast box using a user that is different than the one that owns to the multimedia files you captured. Given read access to that directory, QRecall will capture the owner and permissions of those files, but since it isn't the owner it can't restore the ownership and permissions back the way they were.

The only solution I can think of will require that you gain access to that volume in such a way so that you have permission to restore the original ownership and permissions of those files. If you can attach to comcast volume using the owner of those files, that might do it. You might also physically extract the hard drive from the device and attach it to your Macintosh as an external drive.

Thanks for the quick response.

Yes, it's a standard afp:// share.

What if I were to restore the files from QRecall running on the cablecast machine?

Will I need a new identity key for the cablecast machine for that purpose?

Thanks again,
Kevin

Kevin Crawley wrote:What if I were to restore the files from QRecall running on the cablecast machine?

Oh, then the cablecast machine is another Mac? (I was thinking it was some Linux box or something you used for video recording.) Yes, that would work. In fact if it's a Mac, the best thing to do would be to set up QRecall on that machine and capture and recall directly.

Will I need a new identity key for the cablecast machine for that purpose?

Only capture requires an identity key. See Identity Keys.

If you want to set up QRecall on the cablecast machine to capture, you have two choices. You can reused your existing identity key under the terms of the household license and capture to a separate archive. If you want to capture to the same archive, you should get a second identity key so that QRecall keeps the files in the archive separate.