Lightroom seems to be having permission issues (Lightroom cannot save changes to this location)

[davidk45292577]

Hello everyone,

Today, when I opened LR, it said there was an issue with the catalog and it could not be opened. So, I moved to my backup catalog (I backup every time I shut down the application). 

LR did open, but then I realised the drive letter on my external drive had changed, so I shut down LR so paths to filenames would not be an issue. Again, I did a backup of the catalog on exit. 

After resetting my external drive letter (where my RAW files are stored) to the proper letter, I reopened LR but it would not open, citing inability to save to the location and asking me to check folder permissions. 

I checked the forums and tried reopening and resetting preferences on startup, I manually deleted the preferences folder, I checked permissions on the relevant folder (user>Pictures>Lightroom). I even renamed the Lightroom folder to see if it would create a new Lightroom folder on start. All to no avail.

Finally, I completely removed and reinstalled Lightroom, but am still getting the same error (screenshot attached).

Sorry for the long message, but I am trying to provide as many details as possible. My system is Windows 10, all updates complete. CC has been updated as well. LR is also updated and on the latest version.

I would appreciate your help, I have a bunch of images I need to edit.

[JohanElzenga]

You are trying to save the catalog on the root of the C drive. I am not a Windows user myself, but I don't think an application like Lightroom will have permissions to do that. Save your catalog in the Pictures folder of your user account.

[davidk45292577 · Accepted solution]

Hi Johan,

Thank you for your response. However, I was not trying to save it on the root of the C drive. In fact, I had no option to choose where to save as this screenshot was taken upon running a new reinstallation of Lightroom for the first time (therefore, it should have been trying to save in the default Lightroom location within the Pictures folder). 

Also, after digging around on Windows forums a bit, I discovered the issue was actually Windows Security's Ransomware protection which was not allowing LR to access anything. So, for now, I have turned off the controlled folder access option there and things are up and running again. It is a bit annoying, and there should be a way to add LR to a trusted application list, but that is a Windows issue. I'm just leaving that here including a screenshot in case it helps someone else who runs into this issue. 

Thanks again!