Lightroom file permission error on iMac

[David Horne]

Lightroom Version Number

7.3

Operating System

1. macOS 13 Ventura

I have the latest update for LR 7.3. The other day I encountered this error message...

Lightroom encountered folder permission issues
Lightroom does not have write permission to some standard user folders etc...
I clicked "Repair to Continue"

And that brought up this little nugget...

As you can see, there is no link as referenced to in the error message. Does anyone know how to begin to fix this? I'm running macOS 13.6.3 Ventura on a 2017 iMac. I don't even know where to begin to look to solve this. Please help. Thank you.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Start by checking that Lightroom has full disk access. This link is about Lightroom Classic but it applies to Lightroom too: https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...s-to-lightroom-classic-on-macos/td-p/12913413

 

[David Horne]

Start by checking that Lightroom has full disk access. This link is about Lightroom Classic but it applies to Lightroom too: https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...s-to-lightroom-classic-on-macos/td-p/12913413

Checked that. Lightroom has full access. Lightroom still presents the same two error messages when trying to start up.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Then you’ll have to check each folder that Lightroom uses, I’m afraid. The most important one is the Lightroom Library.lrlibrary in your Pictures folder. This looks like a file, but it is a ‘package’, which is a folder in disguise. Check that you have read & write access and change it if you have not. If you change anything, then do not forget to click the three dots and choose to apply the changes to all enclosed items. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1203/ If that does not work too, then perhaps try uninstall/reinstall.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Another thing to try is to click on the Local tab in Lightroom Desktop, then try to select the user account....that may ask for permission, so accept that then go back to the Cloud tab and try again.

 

[David Horne]

Then you’ll have to check each folder that Lightroom uses, I’m afraid. The most important one is the Lightroom Library.lrlibrary in your Pictures folder. This looks like a file, but it is a ‘package’, which is a folder in disguise. Check that you have read & write access and change it if you have not. If you change anything, then do not forget to click the three dots and choose to apply the changes to all enclosed items. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1203/ If that does not work too, then perhaps try uninstall/reinstall.

Did that. I checked permissions on all folders. I uninstalled Lightroom desktop and reinstalled it. Still getting permission error pop up during LR start up. I ran the Terminal program LightroomCorrectPermissions.sh Started and Restarted my Mac. Nothing seems to work.

However after printing out the results of the running the Terminal program the last few lines of that program show that there were quite a few No Such File or Directory revolving around the program Topaz which I believe is a plugin. I no longer have or use that program and using Finder there is nothing in those directories/folders that I can see. They are empty. I removed that program years ago! So I don't know how Lightroom would even have any remnants of that program in its files. And if LR still thinks it should see those programs and have permissions for them: how do I get rid of that?

 

[David Horne]

Another thing to try is to click on the Local tab in Lightroom Desktop, then try to select the user account....that may ask for permission, so accept that then go back to the Cloud tab and try again.

Thank you. I uninstalled and reinstalled. Signed out and signed in. Still getting pop up error on LR start up. If I click through both of those error warnings I can run the program and see all of the files that I've synced from my LrC running on my M2 MacStudio to my LR desktop running on my iMac.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Thank you. I uninstalled and reinstalled. Signed out and signed in. Still getting pop up error on LR start up. If I click through both of those error warnings I can run the program and see all of the files that I've synced from my LrC running on my M2 MacStudio to my LR desktop running on my iMac.

But did you select the Local tab, then the user folder, as suggested?

 

[David Horne]

But did you select the Local tab, then the user folder, as suggested?

Actually yes I did. I'm sorry I forgot to add that.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

However after printing out the results of the running the Terminal program the last few lines of that program show that there were quite a few No Such File or Directory revolving around the program Topaz which I believe is a plugin. I no longer have or use that program and using Finder there is nothing in those directories/folders that I can see. They are empty. I removed that program years ago! So I don't know how Lightroom would even have any remnants of that program in its files. And if LR still thinks it should see those programs and have permissions for them: how do I get rid of that?

Topaz is a Lightroom Classic plugin. Lightroom desktop does not support plugins. I think LightroomCorrectPermissions.sh is a script for Lightroom Classic permissions.

 

[David Horne]

Topaz is a Lightroom Classic plugin. Lightroom desktop does not support plugins. I think LightroomCorrectPermissions.sh is a script for Lightroom Classic permissions.

If that's the case, how do I get the right permissions script. That one came from Adobe's website.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Sorry, I don’t know if there is such a script.

 

[John Forgan]

Resurrecting this thread, as I had the same problem.

By looking at the lrcc_console.log file in "~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom CC" I could see that the file that was causing the problem was an imported preset in the "~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRAW/Imported Settings" directory. I deleted all the files in that directory and that solved the problem. Note that my users Presets in LRc and LR continued to work OK after I deleted them from this directory, so I guess that they are also stored in another location when installed.

The preset that was causing the problem had its own installer rather than importing via LR Desktop itself. I wonder if there may have been a bug with that installer in that it wasn't installing the correct permissions.

Just posting this as it may help others in future.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Are you talking about Lightroom desktop? Lightroom desktop does not use ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRAW/Imported Settings to store presets. It stores its presets in the cloud, so that explains why your presets kept functioning after removing the copy from this directory. It does not explain why removing presets from this directory could solve a problem in Lightroom desktop. Can you explain what the log said?

 

[John Forgan]

Yes, it was Lightroom Desktop, and the lrcc_console.log gave the file access error with a preset in CameraRaw/ImportedSettings.

I wonder if the preset installation program (provided by the Preset company) puts the presets in ImportedSettings and LightroomDesktop just tries to read everything in ImportedSettings on startup. Maybe there could be files, not necessarily presets, there that Lightroom Desktop may be interested in.

If the file access attributes were wrong that would cause Lightroom Desktop to throw an exception.

Unfortunately I no longer have the lrcc_console.log to share with you as I deleted it.

I suppose that the useful thing is that lrcc_console.log does provide info on the file causing the problem.

 

[John Forgan]

Actually, I restored the file (actually a directory) causing the issue and here is the log file report...

2024-07-16 11:48:31.787 Adobe Lightroom[8721:250519] Lightroom version: 7.4.1 [ 20240625-1512-ca1977c ] (Jun 25 2024)
2024-07-16 11:48:32.070 Adobe Lightroom[8721:250519] VerifySystemPrerequisites ERROR Lightroom requires write permission to the folders { /Users/johnforgan/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/ImportedSettings/MastinLabs }. Please make sure you have read/write permissions to the folders and all its subfolders, and you have cleared the existing ACLs to the folders and all its subfolders.
2024-07-16 11:48:46.723 Adobe Lightroom[8721:250519] VerifySystemPrerequisites: continuing without repairing permissions

The file attributes for the directory are:

drwxr-xr-x 5 root staff 160 16 Jul 11:50 MastinLabs

 

[John Forgan]

Sorry for all the posts

I re- installed the presets using the LRc "Import Develop Profiles & Presets"menu rather than the provided installer and all is well with Lightroom Desktop.

I think it was installing LRc presets using the provided installer that caused the problem. The provided installer added the Presets to Camera Raw and LRc was quite happy with them. Lightroom Desktop however wasn't

However, as per the log output, Lightroom Desktop seems to need to have write access to all folders/files in "ImportedSettings". It looks like it was the MastinLabs installer which added the wrong access controls to the directory, and Lightroom Desktop couldn't cope with it

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Right! I think this installer may use some unusual trick (like adding something to the Lightroom preferences file) that makes Lightroom use that directory. Normally you would not need an installer. You just provide a zipped archive with the presets, and tell the user to import that into Lightroom.