How to list the Mail directory from the Terminal

filesystempermissionterminal

Is there a way to change the file or directory permissions so that I can list the contents of the Mail directory from the Terminal command-line in macOS 10.15.4?

When trying to list the contents, I currently get this error.

$ cd ~/Library/Mail 
$ ls -l 
ls: .: Operation not permitted

The Mail app works without issues. I can see the contents of the Mail folder in the Finder by using the Option key. On earlier macOS versions, I could list the contents from the Terminal without issues. But not any more after migrating to a new MacBook Pro running 10.15.4. What changed?

Best Answer

You need to give Terminal Full Disk Access in System Preferences > Security.

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On one system, before you install the update - enable caching in the sharing preference pane. Save the cache files to an external drive - speed there isn’t much of a limiting factor since the downloads stream well and any recent hard drive or SSD will be almost as fast as the network can serve files.

Then the first machine to do the download will get the file cached. All the rest of the machines will pull from the cached version.

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