P: Won't start. Ask to change permission of folders, but that doesn't solve.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

After the Lightroom 2015.5 (march 2016) update, Lightroom doesn't work anymore. Ask to change permission of folders in library manually. I did as told and it still doesn't work...

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

What happens when you try to open Lightroom?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Lightroom brings a dialog box about user permission problem. Pressing on the repair button then brings a second dialog box that says the problem could not be solved automatically and needs to be done manually and points to https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-cc-2015-4-lightroom-6-4-crashes-on-launch.html
Doing what that page says doesn't solve the problem. Also tried rebooting a.fter

[Photo Taco Podcast]

Have seen numerous people reporting they have encountered this same problem in our large Improve Photography Facebook page Victoria.  When they pulled the catalog file from backup folder that worked, but Disk Utility and First Aid didn't help.  Didn't go so far as to create a new user is OS X and try that route to fix things, but this looks concerning.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I'm forwarding to a LR engineer.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

When you say that a backup catalog fixed it, can you tell me a bit more about that?

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Did you make sure you clicked the cog and set "Apply to all enclosed items" too?

[simonsaith]

Could you follow Dirk's method in this thread to see if it works for you?

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-cc-2015-5-lightroom-6-5-camera-raw-...

And I summarize the steps here:

Option #1:

Please follow https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-cc-2015-4-lightroom-6-4-crashes-on-launch.html to make sure you have read/write permissions to the folders and all its subfolders, if the automatic repair in Lr 6.5 does not fix it for you. Please follow Apple’s help doc https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21997?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US to make sure you correct the permission on the folders AND all their enclosed items. From Apple help doc:

Apply permissions to all items in a folder or a disk

1. Select a folder or a disk, then choose File > Get Info.
   
   
2. Click the lock icon  to unlock it, then enter an administrator name and password. 
   
   
3. Click the Action pop-up menu , then choose “Apply to enclosed items.”

Option #2: If the above steps does not cure your user folder permission issue, try the following commands in the Terminal app

1. Type "Terminal" in the Spotlight search box and launch Mac OSX's Terminal app
2. At the Terminal command prompt, type exactly the following and then hit the enter key (this will remove the Access Control List on the folder and all its subfolders recursively)

chmod -RN ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe

3. Try launch Lightroom to see if it works. If it still does not work, go back to the Terminal command prompt, type exactly the following and then hit the enter key

chmod -RN ~/Library/Caches/Adobe

4. Try launch Lightroom to see if it works. If it still does not work, go back to the Terminal command prompt, type exactly the following and then hit the enter key

chmod -RN ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe

Option #3:

If you tried the option #1 and #2 and it still does not work, I would suggest making a backup of the user folders mentioned in https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-cc-2015-4-lightroom-6-4-crashes-on-launch.html and try to delete them. 

Option #4:

Setup a new user account on the machine and run Lightroom from that new account instead.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Thanks Simon Chen,
Option #1 did work! The difference was the "Click the Action pop-up menu , then choose “Apply to enclosed items.” part.

Hope Adobe fix this bug quickly for others.

[simonsaith]

Adobe Lightroom 6.5 just surfaced the potential folder permission issues on the user's Mac OS X account setup. The file system permission issues like these could trip up some Adobe applications (Lightroom's included) in some unpredictable ways (see https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lr-6-4-mac-os-x-10-11-3-hangs-freezes-crashes...).

These account setup issues need to be addressed by the customer from the Mac OS X. For Lightroom, we would consider logging the full path of the folders that has the permission issues and possibly making the success of the permission check optional to allow one to continue working in Lightroom despite the problem (customers would be at their own risk).

[Travisg1967]

So updated lightroom and have same issue, i have work to process and cannot do it . This is utter rubbish, and. Not what i pay adobe a subscription for a buggy update that leaves me with no working software. Tried all above and. O joy, why should i have to make a new user account utter tosh!

[simonsaith]

@GrAHaM Why this has anything to do with the subscription? You have an incorrect Mac OS X user account setup that could prevent Adobe software from working correctly. No one know how your machine got into that state. I have some circustantial evidence that it was due to some Mac OS X upgrade. As I have mentioned elsewhere, it is no coincidence that Apple needed to create a help doc https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21997?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US specifically for the El Capitan to address the customer's file permission and ownership issues.  Lr 6.5 is just the messenger that exposes such subtle issues and reports to the customer. It also offers a best effort method to fix it automatically for the customer. In most cases, it should be sufficient. But there are exceptional cases out there that need to be dealt with exceptionally. Complaining on Adobe and shooting the messenger will not address the root cause of the problem.

[simonsaith]

The in-app "Learn More..." document https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-cc-2015-4-lightroom-6-4-crashes-on-launch.html has been updated with the latest info and workaround.

[ssprengel]

People aren't shooting the messenger, they're shooting the heavy-handed enforcement agent that the messenger has brought along that prevents the software from starting up.

[simonsaith]

Yeh, that (the heavy handedness) will be fixed in the next Lr update. Our working assumption earlier was that when you have folder permission issues like these, Lr is not going to work correctly -- crashes, hangs and weird behaviors as reported by many https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lr-6-4-mac-os-x-10-11-3-hangs-freezes-crashes....

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I run OSX 10.10.5 (by good reasons) and have the exact same problem.
Until the Update the 2015.4 version was working perfectly. Bridge and Photoshop both work fine after the update. But Lightroom denies the permissions altough they are all set properly. It simply doesn ́t see them right. I tried to remove the permissions and reset them with Info, with terminal and even as another ADMIN. I uninstalled it 3 times reinstalled did the permission settings with LR installed or uninstalled, with reboots after installation.......... all to no result.

This is a program bug. Sorry.

[simonsaith]

@stefan Did you apply the permission changes to the enclosed items as described https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-cc-2015-4-lightroom-6-4-crashes-on-launch.html?  Are you able to get to the right folders? The user Library file is hidden by default on Mac OS X 10.7 and later. For temporary access to the user Library file, press Option and choose Go > Library in the Finder.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Yes. I am an Apple certified trainer Simon. I found the Library. 🙂
Lightroom CC 2015.5 doesn ́t see the permissions altough they are there.
I am pretty sure this is a showstopper bug in the program.
And as far as you can see here in the letters and also on Adobe forums,it doesn ́t matter which OSX is running, it seems to happen anywhere. So as much as I am careful about 10.11.x this is not the OS.

[simonsaith]

Ok. I guess I possibly underestimated your Mac experiences :-). We want to learn more about your particular situation.

So you set up another OS account with admin privilege and run Lr 6.5/2015.5 from that brand new user account and it still does not work for you (meaning the permission warning dialog still pops up on launch). Is that right?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi Simon. Yes. I even tried  all of this first with the installed software and a restart and then without installed  software and a restart and a fresh install immediately after boot. It ́s not catching on. There is no communication from this point onward.
I have even tried to rename the SLcache and SLstore and did the same thing to maybe get it catching on. Nada.
and frankly the logic pretty much  tells me that as the only new piece of software that arrived on my machine was the Update and the former version did not have any permission problems when I last ran it before I updated, it sounds as if the 2015.5 LR code has some serious flaw.
Especially as 2015.5 Bridge and Photoshop don ́t have any of these problems, probably using the same or a very similar certification structure.

[Travisg1967]

24hrs ago my lightroom cc worked, I updated it and nothing else, now it will not run just the permissions error. All this rubbish about not shooting the messenger and blaming the os is just an excuse. Adobe sort your buggy update! It has EVERYTHING to do with the subscription i am paying for as the software i need to run today will not work.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi Victoria - I think Jeff is referring to my experience.  I actually restored the whole of Lightroom from a time machine backup from the previous day (not just the catalogue file).  That worked perfectly - it reset Lightroom as previous version and opened as normal with access to catalogue and all presets/settings intact.  

However Creative Cloud now thinks my software is up to date when it isn't.  I wanted to try and install v5 again and I can't - it doesn't even work when I download the standalone update from Adobe.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

OK-here is a working solution from Adobe forums - but you won ́t like it:

you can try to open the complete Users/library/application support/Adobe
folder to read write for everybody and apply that to all subfolders. I did and it still didnt work.
Only when I did this to the whole library, Lightroom would start..........

Here my reply to the adobe forum


"......And indeed - when I now open up the complete user library with all subfolders (!!!!) to read and write for everybody, Lightroom will start !

I have tried to keep it on a lower level and worked my way up through the folders , but unless the whole user library folder is unprotected , the software won ́t start.

 Completely Unacceptable - this is madness ! A complete security breach. If this is the only way to run the Adobe CC suite now, I will quit and use something else.

 Because this will mean anyone in a shared network, lan or wifi or as a guest on my computer will now be able to access the whole user library with all data !

 Has Adobe gone nuts ? I expect a corrected version that behaves as the 2015.4 before.
I will wait for some days, and if there is no immediate update, I will cancel my subscription !

 Is this due to the NSA madness ? USA going berserk ? Well, if this is the case, Dear Adobe - forget your business."

and this is the polite version

[simonsaith]

There must be something else going on that machine. In my setup, only me have read/write access to my entire home folder "~/", all others just have read only access. And Lr just works fine.

[simonsaith]

I just did another experiment. I revoked all access to my entire home folder "/" by everyone. Only me has read/write access to my home folder. My default group ('staff') has read only access. Lr launches just fine.

So it seems that when the account permission is setup properly, there is absolutely no need to grant r/w permission to the entire world in order for Lightroom to work correctly.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi Simon
I also called adobe Germany Phone support today and they told me they are flooded with this, italso varies vastly. some can get it solved with a new admin, some by just doing the terminal command and some like me need a global readwrite right to the library. It ́s a big mess.