🔎 Quick Tips: How to give Full Disk Access to Lightroom Classic on macOS

[Sameer K]

How to provide Full Disk Access on macOS

Since macOS 10.14 (Mojave), Apple introduced a new privacy structure to help ensure that all applications obtain user consent before accessing documents, downloads, desktop, iCloud Drive, and network volumes. This has been reinforced in newer versions of macOS. This change prevents unauthorized access to user files and folders.

When Full Disk access & Accessibility permissions are needed, users may be asked to or be required to change the setting in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy for Lightroom Classic manually.   

While for the File & Folders access, the user is prompted to allow or deny when needed. 

Why provide full disk access to Lightroom Classic?

Insufficient or broken permissions may restrict Lightroom Classic from functioning correctly and break your workflows. All tasks that require access to the computer's storage — importing/exporting images, cross-app workflows, reading/writing metadata,  and more, behave unexpectedly. It may also lead to missing images, performance issues, unexpected sync issues, and random app crash on launch or while working on a file. 

Watch this video for the steps:

Quick steps to enable full disk access and grant permissions to Lightroom Classic

 Follow these steps to prevent the permissions issues from occurring: 

❶  Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Click the Lock icon > Authorize via password > Unlock the lock to allow changes to system settings. 

❷  Add Lightroom Classic by clicking on the (+) button & navigate to the Applications folder on macOS.

❸  Go to Full Disk Access and add Lightroom Classic by clicking on the (+) button & navigate to the Applications folder on macOS.
Note: Adding Lightroom Classic under Full Disk Access overrides Files and Folders settings. 

❹  Click the Lock icon to save the changes. Restart your computer to see the applied changes. 

Stay tuned for more tips to come.

Related links:

Lightroom Classic system requirements 

Quick Tips: Optimize LrC preferences for better performance 

Basic troubleshooting steps to fix issues in Lightroom Classic 

[Eduardo23962815of2b]

Granting full disk access made it. THANKS ALOT

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

[karikg]

I am a longtime LrC user, never had a problem before. Today I encountered this problem: I cannot delete my photos and cannot edit. it reports that filr does not exist. also I am getting an announcement" Lightroom cannot write to the following directories. until this problem is resolved, syncing from lightroommay not function correctly" Please advise. Thank you in advance. My email is [Mod: mail address removed]

[Moderator] 

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[John R Ellis]

Make sure that LR has full-disk access in System Preferences > Security & Privacy.  See here for details:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lightroom-catalog-cannot-be-used-becaus...

[karikg]

Thank you, my problem was resolved

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

[kirstyc90386716]

When I open LRCC a few pictures load ok but most stay blank - a few have the !mark  I get "There was an unknown error while writing metadata to this photo. Retry?”. The options are ‘Retry Metadata Export’ & when I click on that it says - Photos could not be found on disc, but they are there when I ‘Show in Finder’ (I keep my images on an external HD)

If I click on the other option - Import Settings from Disk - the progress bar on the top left of LR is there but doesn’t move.

The images show in LR Mobile, both on iPhone & iPad

I am using 11.3 on Mac OS 12.3.1

[Sameer K]

Hi Kristy,

Thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble with Lightroom Classic. We are here to help.

The error is related to file & folder's read & write permissions and drive accessibility.

You can ensure Lightroom has the permissions needed on the Mac by following the steps suggested below:  

1.  Go to the System Preferences for your Mac, then Security and Privacy, then select the Privacy tab.  
2. Then select Accessibility from the list to the left & check if Lightroom is added to the list with a checkmark in front of it.  
3. If Lightroom is not a part of the list, please add it by unlocking the window first using the lock at the bottom left, then clicking the + icon & navigating to the Applications folder.  
4. Also, grant permissions to Lightroom under Full disk access found in the same list as Accessibility.
   
5. Once done, lock the padlock to save the changes.
   
6. Search for Disk Utility from Finder's spotlight search or magnifying glass.
7. Run 'First Aid' diagnostic on the external drive. Check this to learn more: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898
8. Restart the computer.

Let us know if it works,

Thanks!

Sameer K

[kirstyc90386716]

Hi Sameer

Yay - thank you so much for your quick & helpful response - it is all running smoothly now which is a great relief. I am so grateful for your help.

Many thanks

Kind regards

Kirsty 

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

[JohnCosterPhotography]

The Lightroom catalog cannot be used because the parent folder “/Volumes/Big LaCie/2022/JC 2022” does not allow files to be created within it.

[JohnCosterPhotography]

I have checked the permissions of the folder, as before set, to read and write!

It's the same for all of my catalog's

[JohnCosterPhotography]

It looks like an issue with the recent OS upgrade resetting System Preferences, Security, Privacy permissions for Adobe to not have access to files and folders.  Added permissions and all now ok!

Summary of my enviroment: - MacBook Pro 2018, OS Monterey 12.3.1, LR 11.3 

[tori240774941kbz]

I made sure all my permissions were set to "read & write" and I'm still getting the parent folder message. 😕 

[JohnCosterPhotography]

That's were I was and getting nowhere! But then I checked :-

System Preferences >> Security >> Files and Folders >> Adobe apps..... (or you Full Disk Access >> Adobe Apps) 

And then all was good again! 

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

[0305cej]

This is what i get now after doing updates. 

The Lightroom catalog cannot be used because the parent folder “/Volumes/8 TB (Mac)/XXX/Photos” does not allow files to be created within it.

Please either fix the folder permissions before continuing or choose a different catalog.

I cannot open LR at all. I checked the System Preferences . This is obviously a bug as it was fine yesterday before I did the updates to MacOS and to Lightroom Classic.

 Please help

[cmgap]

Does Lightroom have Full Disk Access? System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access (checked in the right column)

[scubakids]

That worked for me!  I was having the exact same problem after updating both!  Thank you.

[GoldingD]

What is your MACOS now?

What was your MACOS before?

[palolite]

Thank you very much. This worked for me after long night of searching.

[cmgap]

Great. Thanks for updating your post. 

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

[Chisos236519464j0n]

Made the mistake of updating to macOS Monterey 12.3.1 and now my Lightroom 11.3 is wrecked, every photo is indicated as missing even though the entire drive and original photos are still avalaible. 

When in 'Develop' all of my presets are gone and each photo says 'file could not be found' even though the originls are all in the same place as they have been for the previous 2 years. Also all of my presets are gone.

When I try to import new .ARW files from my Sony A7iii, the library says 'no photos found'. Never had this issue before. I can import photos in to Lightroom mobile for desktop but not into Lightroom Classic.

Finally - I've seen trouble shooting tips to delete the old preferences to reset it but when I try that the .plst file doesnt even exist.

Can anyone please help? This is so frustrating considering I didnt do any migration or move drives or anything. 

{Moved from Lightroom Cloud to Lightroom Classic Forum by Moderator} 

[JohanElzenga]

That combinations works fine on my machine. Check that Lightroom Classic still has the necessary permissions in MacOS. Maybe the update changed that: