Mac OS X Server: Anonymous FTP users cannot save to shares

Issue or symptom

Anonymous FTP users cannot write to a share point, even though the file permissions allow it. A "Permission denied" alert message appears.

Solution

By default, anonymous users are only allowed to save files to the folder (/Library/FTPServer/FTPRoot/uploads) and its subfolders. Anonymous users are only allowed to create folders in (/Library/FTPServer/FTPRoot/uploads/mkdirs).

To change the default, follow these steps:

1. Set the home folder of the FTP user to the desired location.
   1. Open Workgroup Manager and connect to the server.
   2. Select the Local node in the pull-down under the tool bar.
   3. From the View menu, choose Show System Users and Groups.
   4. Select the FTP user.
   5. Edit the user's home in the Home tab. Note: If the FTP user is missing in Workgroup Manager, first connect to the FTP server as anonymous.
      
      
2. Open the file ftpaccess located in (/Library/FTPServer/Configuration/).
3. Locate these lines:
   
   upload /Library/FTPServer/FTPRoot /uploads yes ftp daemon 0666 nodirs
   upload /Library/FTPServer/FTPRoot /uploads/mkdirs yes ftp daemon 0666 dirs 0777
   
   
4. Replace "/Library/FTPServer/FTPRoot" with FTP user's home directory path in the above lines. The FTP server will use the FTP user home folder as root.
   
5. Save the changes.
6. The uploads folder needs to be created with the appropriate permissions for user FTP to allow saving to the share. Refer to this document for more information.