I do just about all of my computer stuff with Apple software, with the exception of two programs that run in Windows. I have not found suitable replacements that operate in Mac OS. One of these is Intuit's QuickBooks, Windows version.

I work both in my office at the airport, and also from home, so I use a cloud service to access the QuickBooks data file from either location.

Until recently, I used DropBox, but DropBox has introduced a new restriction: a maximum of three devices can be used with a free DropBox account, so I am in the process of migrating to Apple's iCloud, and I have found some strange behavior.

When I close the QuickBooks company file, the attributes are set to read-only, which causes a problem the next time that I try to open the file. This only occurs if the QuickBooks data file is kept in iCloud -- it does not happen if the file is kept in a local directory, nor does it happen with DropBox.

It is more of an annoyance than a major problem, since it's easy enough to remove the read-only attribute of the data file before opening QuickBooks, but it is annoying to have to do this every time.

I have not noticed this problem with any other file -- it seems to be just the combination of the QuickBooks data file and iCloud (for Windows).

Do any of y'all know what might be causing this? Better yet, does anybody know how to prevent the file from being set to read-only, every time I close it?

I found a little more information about this behavior.

It seems that QuickBooks requires read-write permission for both user and group, in order to use the data file.

When closing the file, iCloud (Windows) leaves read-write for user, but changes group to read-only.

If nobody speaks up here with a clue, I'll try to contact Apple tech support when I get a chance.