When is an Error Message Not an Error Message?
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 8:48AM 
I decided to kick off the new year in style. And by style, I mean by repairing permissions. Talk about a party! The only thing was, I saw a new cryptic message: Warning: SUID file "/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Uh-oh. This can't be good. Well it turns out, at least according to Apple, there's nothing to see here. In an support article titled "Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Permissions messages that you can safely ignore," the error I received, along with over 50 other errors that can be ignored. I know Apple wants to keep things simple, but it might be nice to give a little more of an explanation as to why these errors crop up in Disk Utility, and why they can be ignored.
The same article also cryptically advises: You can also usually ignore any "ACL found but not expected..." message. These messages can occur if you change permissions on a file or directory. These messages are accurate but are generally not a cause for concern.
And my personal favorite, you can ignore "any messages that contains the word 'WebObjects'."
So if you see the message "All data has been deleted. Your computer will now stop functioning. WebObjects." Rest assured everything is fine.