Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later: AFP share points may mount as read only

After updating to Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, Apple File Service (AFP) share points from Mac OS X 10.3.9 servers may be mounted read only.

This can occur if the volume originated from an AppleShare IP migration, and the AppleShare IP administrator had selected the "Can't move, rename, or delete this item (locked)" option, which set the user immutable flag on the share point. The AFP client in Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.4.5 ignored this flag, but that is no longer the case, so some share points may appear read only.

Solution

To change the Finder flags using a 10.4.6 or later client:

1. Log into the AFP server as the owner of that share point.
2. In the Terminal, execute the command cd /Directory, where Directory is the location of the share point.
3. Execute ls -lo, and you will see that the "uchg" flag is set on the share point, indicating that it is immutable. For example:
   

   server:/Shared Items admin$ ls -lo
   total 112
   drwxrwxr-x   2 root   admin  uchg 68 Sep  9  2005 Public
   drwxr-xr-x   2 admin  admin  -    68 Jun  5 14:02 Public2
   server:/Shared Items admin$

   
   
4. Execute: sudo chflags nouchg sharepointName
5. Execute ls -lo again to verify that the "uchg" flag is now cleared.