MacOS – Process (fmfd) spamming the console with sandbox denies

consolemacossandbox

Since installing OSX 10.10 (Yosemite), my console is full of error messages regarding fmfd, like fmfd(384) deny file-read-metadata /Volumes/Macintosh HD

This happens mostly at startup and when starting programs. I just want to know what it is, for my peace of mind and that my console can lose some weight 😉

Here´s some more (hopefully useful) information from one report:

fmfd(384) deny file-read-metadata /Volumes/Macintosh HD

Process:         fmfd [384]
Path:            /usr/libexec/fmfd
Load Address:    0x105f38000
Identifier:      fmfd
Version:         ??? (???)
Code Type:       x86_64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [1]

Date/Time:       2014-10-21 17:13:10.336 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.10 (14A389)
Report Version:  8

Can you help me with that, or assure me it´s harmless? I don´t necessarily want to allow the process more rights in the sandbox if not necessary, like they did in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5495141?start=15&tstart=0

Best Answer

I just found how to solve this problem.

Go to the /System/Library/Sandbox/Profiles folder, you will find a file named fmfd.sb. You can't modify it here, so copy it to your desktop.
Open the copy with TextEdit, locate the allow file-read-metadata section and add a new line under (literal "/Volumes") for the folder that can't be read, for you that should be (literal "/Volumes/Macintosh HD").
Replace the original with the copy (don't forget to make a backup), since it's in a system folder it will ask for your password.
Reboot your Mac the error messages in Console should be gone!

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This question from superuser sounds just like the one that your asking.

https://superuser.com/questions/194094/how-do-i-get-rid-of-com-apple-launchd-peruser-errors-in-my-log

The error that the person gets in that question is just about the same as the one as you are asking except that his UID is 501 where yours is 32752.

The answer i believe that might solve your problem is provided by the user JasKerr:

I can answer your last question, but it will take more work to solve the problem.

The peruser indicates a launchd daemon started by a userland process. The numeric suffix is the UID. In this case, an application attempted load a launchd job as user 501. That failed, since there appears to be no user 501 on your system.

Have you installed software recently? User management utilities changed in Leopard, so an installer intended for an older version (Tiger?) may not work properly in 10.5.6.

Start by taking a look at ~/Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LauchAgents, and /Library/LaunchDaemons. There may be a job that's UID 501.

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MacOS – How to stop AppleIDAuthAgent flooding the console log with messages about expired apple id

This seems to result from deprecated MobileMe and iDisk preference files laying around. This post at the Apple discussion forum may help you delete the relevant files:

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.DotMacSync*.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.idisk*.plist
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.idisk*.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist
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Don't forget to close relevant applications (like Mail or Messages) before the deletion; it also might be a good idea to at least log out and in again afterwards.

Best Answer

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