What is vsdbutil?

vsdbutil is a small tool for managing volume permissions on your Mac.

What is vsdbutil?

vsdbutil stands for "Volume Status Database utility". It keeps track of which volumes have file ownership and permissions turned on. On macOS, external volumes can have Unix permissions ignored, which makes file sharing simpler but less secure.

What does it do?

vsdbutil records whether file ownership and permissions are turned on for each mounted volume. When you mount an external drive, macOS checks this record to decide whether to enforce file permissions.

You can check or change a volume's permission status:

# Check if permissions are turned on
vsdbutil -c /Volumes/MyDrive

# Turn on permissions
sudo vsdbutil -a /Volumes/MyDrive

# Turn off permissions
sudo vsdbutil -d /Volumes/MyDrive

When does it matter?

This matters most for external drives used between several Macs or user accounts. With permissions turned off, any user can open any file on the volume. With permissions turned on, standard Unix file ownership rules apply.

Should you worry?

No. It is a normal macOS volume management tool.

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