[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="http://joeyh.name/"
 ip="209.250.56.2"
 subject="comment 1"
 date="2014-07-10T18:11:22Z"
 content="""
The most likely problem would be if your repository contained annexed objects owned by different user than the one running `git annex direct`.

However, I cannot reproduce this problem:

<pre>
direct foo 
  /home/joey/tmp/r/.git/annex/objects/pV/7j/SHA256E-s30--2754b7f82f6994005b97256273756f14d4abc17165c8819c06c07340d03351fa: setFileMode: permission denied (Operation not permitted)

  leaving this file as-is; correct this problem and run git annex fsck on it
direct  ok
</pre>

Since version 4.20130921, any exception when moving a file to direct mode should be caught like that.

I will need more information to reproduce your bug. Or are you sure you wrote down the right version of git-annex?
"""]]