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InDesign CC Start-up Error: "...lack sufficient permissions to access the preferences folders"

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
October 13, 2013
22 replies
51786 views

InDesign CC

Having successfully installed many CC apps on my Mac Pro Desktop, I proceeded to do the same on my laptop. However, after two attempts at uninstalling and re-downloading both InDesign CC and the Creative Cloud Desktop. When starting up InDesign, I repeatedly get this error message: "Error: Unable to launch Adobe InDesign as you lack sufficient permissions to access the preferences folders. Ensure that you have appropriate permissions and then restart Adobe InDesign." and can go no further.

I can find no instruction on how to do this, or reference to anyone else getting this error.

MacBook Pro

17-inch, Late 2011

Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

Correct answer creatorii

I've seen this stock suggestion posted on many discussions. I've solved the problem with LiveChat with Adobe Support:

Mohammed: As I understand you are not able to launch CC apps since it is giving error "Unable to launch Adobe InDesign as you lack sufficient permissions to access the preferences folders". Is that correct?

Paul: Yes

Mohammed: Please open a Finder window. Choose Go > Go To Folder. Type ~/library and you will get Preferences folder.

Paul: In Library now

Mohammed: Are you able to find preferences folder?

Paul: yes

Mohammed: Control-click the folder and choose Get Info.

Mohammed: Expand the Sharing & Permissions section.

Mohammed: Click the lock icon in the lower-right corner. Enter your administrator user name and password when prompted, and then click OK.

Paul: done

Mohammed: Please click on + icon and add the Admin and all users showing.

Paul: done

Mohammed: Set permission for all users and admin as read/write

Mohammed: Click the Gear icon, and select Apply to Enclosed Item

Paul: to each of the individual users and groups?

Paul: one at a time?

Paul: I've done it.

Mohammed: Please open a Finder window. Choose Go > Go To Folder. Type ~/library/Application support and give full permission to Adobe folder.

Paul: That's completed... I've added all the users and groups, given each 'Read and Write" and extended the permissions to all enclosed items.

Mohammed: Now please open a Finder window. Choose Go > Go To Folder. Type /library/Application support and give full permission to Adobe folder.

Paul: OK, I understand... I am proceeding with your instruction.

Mohammed: Thank you.

Paul: I'm finished.

Mohammed: Please close all Adobe Applications and then launch InDesign CC and let me know the result.

Paul: OK... looking good so far Mohammed... fingers crossed!

Paul: Thanks Mohammed... it's launched!

Mohammed: Excellent, I am so happy to hear this from you.

Mohammed: I certainly appreciate your patience in this process.

Paul: And I yours.

Show previous replies

TTippens

Participant

Thank you for posting this, I have avoided using In Design for the past 1.5 years, now thanks to you I have it working again!

Appreciate it & Adobe, please fix!

M

mwillems

Participating Frequently

Simple enough: http://www.speedlighter.ca/2016/03/23/huge-adobe-bug/

What astonishes me is that Adobe allows a fatal (no startup!) bug to continue. WOW.

K

krisk626

Participant

Thank you Creatorii! For others who might still be experiencing issues. In addition to the step by step list provided, I also had to do these same steps to my "Caches" folder within the same Library folder to work. I saw mention of this in a different thread.

A

Anonymous

I love you. If it wasn't for you, it still wouldn't have worked for me. Thank you so much that you mentioned the cache folder option!

rszyspoon

Participant

For anyone who may still be having an issue, I found another directory that might need to be touched:

/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version 11.0

It was created with Custom Permissions. For your own user, set it to Read & Write.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

rszyspoon wrote:

For anyone who may still be having an issue, I found another directory that might need to be touched:

/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version 11.0

It was created with Custom Permissions. For your own user, set it to Read & Write.

I believe that should be ~Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/ (your user library).

L

LewisFrancis10674420

Inspiring

Same problem here but with Premiere, and I'm also reluctant to mess with permissions -- if I switch to a new profile Premiere will launch fine, and I can't see any difference in permissions between my regular profile and this test profile. Lightroom, Dreamweaver, Photoshop all launch fine in my regular profile. This problem first surfaced in Yosemite but now I'm running El Capitan and have the same issue.

Just checked AfterEffects and Prelude, and both crash. MediaEncoder and Audition both run fine.

J

jjscott875

Participant

Unfortunately, this did not work for me, even after multiple attempts to ensure I hadn't overlooked anything.

I still get the following error:

Unable to launch Adobe InDesign as you do not have sufficient permissions to access the preferences folders. Ensure that you have appropriate permissions and then restart Adobe InDesign.

Are there any other steps to try if the procedure described above doesn't work? I tried the standard troubleshooting approaches and was able to get InDesign to run by creating a new user account, but none of the other suggestions appeared to make a difference.

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

OS X Version 10.11 El Capitan

I just updated to El Capitan, though I'm not seeing any other posts that associate this specific issue with the OS X update. Just prior to updating, I erased my hard drive and reinstalled from TimeMachine in order to create a BootCamp partition. I don't know if the inDesign permissions issue predated either of these steps. Illustrator is working fine.