MacOS – Can’t save files in the own directory due to insane permission error

macmacospermission

I was working on my mac and saved a file. Continued to work on the file. One hour later, when I tried to save that file, I saw the message "The document could not be saved. You don't have permission". What??? Now I see I cannot save any of my files. I can open them, but I cannot save. Any file. But this is selective. TextEdit can save the files, Mail.app can open emails and save attachments. Xcode can create and save new projects, but I cannot modify them, or I will see the error if I try to save.

This is what I have tried to do:

  • chown, chmod -R 755, etc. on the directory containing my projects doesn't help.
  • Disk Utility > Repair Permissions doesn't help.
  • Reinstalling the app, clearing their .plists, etc. doesn't help.
  • I can create a new project or document with these apps (Xcode and Photoshop for example, just to name a few) and it saves the file on my documents directory, but if I change the document and try to save, I see the error.
  • I have rebooted the computer and also turned it off and on.
  • I did a safe mode boot and scanned the disk using /sbin/fsck -fy and no issues were found.
  • I have deleted all caches and application support files.
  • I did a chmod -R -N ~ on my documents directory, suspecting that some ACLs could be the guilty. No change.
  • I did a recursive chown to take ownership of my own files. The ownership was correct before, but I just did it again to clean anything that could be wrong.
  • I reinstalled both apps and nothing.

What more I can? Cry?

Thoughts? Thanks

Best Answer

I had the same problem. I tried what Matt Love has suggested and still had the problems. I then downloaded Cocktail and ran permission repair, rebooted and all worked again.

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