File permissions for project files set to 'No Access' for Everyone group in CC 2017 (14.2)

[agentirons]

I have noticed that when saving projects using AE 2017 (14.2.0.198) and OS X 10.11.6, the project file permissions get set to -rw-rw----, so only my current user and anybody in the 'staff' group have read/write permissions, while anybody else gets no access.

In AE CC 2015.3, the default file permissions are set to -rw-rw-rw-. In Photoshop CC 2017.1, the default file permissions are set to -rw-r--r--@. This is also the same permissions that OS X's TextEdit application uses. AE CC 2014.2 has the same minus the @ symbol (so no extended attributes).

I am currently signed in as an Administrator user. The fact that default permissions have changed between versions isn't that big a deal, but the current permissions actually do matter to me - I need network users to access these project files, and currently I have to save my project and manually change permissions afterwards in order for that to work.

A bug report has already been filed since I didn't know how else to frame it. Does anybody know if default permissions can be edited, or if there is a workaround for this issue?

[Mylenium]

You could try running as a normal user? Sounds like an OS thing to me more than anything else and in fact I would expect a privileged user to always work this way and keep lesser users out. It's probably more appropriate to think of it as "there was a bug that has been fixed" and the behavior by all means sounds correct.

Mylenium

[agentirons]

Thank you for the suggestion - I created a brand new regular user, logged in and saved a new After Effects 14.2 project, and it was the same as my Administrator user: -rw-rw----

I understand what you're getting at about correct behavior, but really the issue is that it's abnormal in the context of OS X. My umask is set to the OS default 0022, which to my understanding should mean that all new files and folders have a default permission set of -rw-r--r--@, and aside from various versions of After Effects, I've yet to find a program on my computer that saves files otherwise. It looks like from reading about all this that each process has it's own mask that gets compared against the umask to generate the permissions, and if so then that would account for differences between apps. But it still doesn't tell me why AE chose to switch things up, even compared to other Adobe CC products like Photoshop. And of course I don't really know if I'm the only one experiencing this. I have some other machines running AE 14.0 that use the 2015.3 permissions (-rw-rw-rw-), but I don't have a quick way of downgrading my machine or upgrading those machines to test further so I wanted to see if anybody else was seeing this behavior first.

[agentirons]

I can now confirm that, on our network and computers at least, any machine running 14.2 uses -rw-rw---- while machines running 13.7.2 through 14.1 use -rw-rw-rw- (regardless of user type)

It turns out this also applies to image sequences rendered out of After Effects, and not just the project files.

[JL_Willox]

Oh man. Thank you agentirons​. We have been trying to track this issue down in our studio as well. "Happy" to hear we aren't alone...

We are heavily using the integrated Dynamic Link functions and templates on multiple stations, and any time the parent file gets saved on a particular work station, the RW access gets reset to "none" except that user, and subequently makes those files offline for everyone else. Any rendered files get "Read Only" access. This is obviously a minor annoyance that could become a major issue.

It's worth noting that if we duplicate the project file and place it somewhere locally (*gasp* the Desktop) and relink it to test it, the permissions issue vanishes. That is obviously horrifying in terms of version control and a bad idea all around, but it was a workaround we used for a few days until we started going in and changing permissions manually after each save.

Any updates on this issue from Adobe? Do you think it came from their work tinkering with Team Projects and/or the new Essential Graphics workflows?

[agentirons]

I have yet to hear anything from Adobe, and our studio has left everybody on 14.1 in order to avoid this issue until it gets resolved. Wish I had better news than that. The only other workaround I can think of would be to create a recurring LaunchAgent that checks specific folders for .aep files and runs a chmod command on them. But that's only helpful if your project files are limited to a few locations, and might not work if the .aep file is currently open.

[JL_Willox]

May I ask what kind of a network/server you're running?

We recently upgraded our SAN system etc. and our IT team is interested in finding out if it's a combination of problems that is causing this, or if it's a dedicated Adobe issue. I'd be curious to see if this is a widespread but underreported issue, as most single-license users wouldn't even notice this problem if they were always working locally.

Thanks agentirons!

[agentirons]

We are currently running AFP on OS X 10.11 across our network, using local users, but the permissions issue occurs even when saving directly to the local hard disk, so I feel like we've ruled out the network as part of the problem.

[JL_Willox]

Hey agentirons​

Our IT team solved the problem on our system without actually having to fix the After Effects permissions issue directly.
This is from our IT team:

"The problem seemed to be specific to Adobe After Effects. To solve it we created an ACL for each of the 4 main folders of the SAN. We then created a group on the Mac server called "video" and propagated permissions on the SAN to this group. Lastly, we converted your local mac login accounts to network accounts (UID's in the 1000 range) and changed ownership of your local files so that desktop settings, apps and other setup remain unaffected."

It's been running perfectly since the update, though I know you have a different configuration, but maybe this can give you some clues to a more permanent workaround?

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello AgentIrons,

I have found that every time OS X is updated to a major new version (and using certain methods of updating/deployment), you see permissions issues with some users. I always make a point of adjusting permissions accordingly after every major update. It seems to have been this way since around OS X 10.9.

The issue could also be related to the Creative Cloud installer, but if you are in an enterprise environment, this seems less likely. Our support staff has users rename all Adobe folders to "Old_Adobe" but I prefer to reset Adobe folder permissions using Get Info. I created a blog post about it. See if it helps: Premiere Pro CC, CC 2014, or 2014.1 freezing on startup or crashing while working (Mac OS X 10.9, an...

Thanks,
Kevin

[agentirons]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the info, but I believe this is a separate and possibly related issue.

To illustrate, here are two files in an image sequence rendered from After Effects using a render farm, but the left one was from a machine running AE 14.1 and the right one was from a machine running 14.2.0 (and both machines running OSX 10.11.6):

Any user that's in the staff group (so any local user account on a Mac) is fine, but in any more complex environment you've got users who have zero access where before they had RW. And either case is different from every other file I've looked at, including those generated by the OS like folders, and those generated from other CC programs like Photoshop - the standard is user: RW, staff: R, everyone: R. I've also checked the newest 14.2.1 update and the issue is the same.