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

Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2013 Oct 13, 2013

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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

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Beginner , Oct 13, 2013 Oct 13, 2013

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 p

...

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Adobe Employee ,
Oct 13, 2013 Oct 13, 2013

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Hi creatorii,

A few standard troubleshooting steps we'd like you to test out:

1. Check the user / disk permissions.

2. Recreate preferences: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/526990

3. Disable any third party plug-ins

4. Starting your computer in Safe boot mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

5. Creating a new user account / Root user account ( http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528 )and see if the issue persists

Please let us know how it goes. Thanks!

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2013 Oct 13, 2013

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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.

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New Here ,
Jul 18, 2014 Jul 18, 2014

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Solved my problem. Thanks so much for posting!

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Explorer ,
Feb 09, 2015 Feb 09, 2015

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That was it, fixed the issue for me. Thank you!

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Contributor ,
Aug 17, 2015 Aug 17, 2015

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Thank you creatorii! This solved my problem on OS X 10.10.4.

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New Here ,
Oct 20, 2015 Oct 20, 2015

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creatorii wrote:

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


I'm not sure this is a good idea. As I read this, Adobe is recommending that you completely bypass the security controls of Mac OS X. This recommendation above (at least the first step) is giving all users full read/write permissions to EVERY preference folder for ALL applications in YOUR OWN user library. This is a bad idea. I understand why it works... of course if you bypass the security controls on your machine then you won't have any problems with permission errors, but this is not an adequate replacement for a proper solution that maintains your Mac's security.


This proposed solution is like me complaining to a locksmith "The key to my front door isn't working," and the locksmith taking a hammer and ripping the lock off the door, and saying, "It's fixed!"


Does anyone have a solution that isn't so irresponsible?

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New Here ,
Dec 01, 2015 Dec 01, 2015

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matth40640805 schreef:

creatorii wrote:

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


I'm not sure this is a good idea. As I read this, Adobe is recommending that you completely bypass the security controls of Mac OS X. This recommendation above (at least the first step) is giving all users full read/write permissions to EVERY preference folder for ALL applications in YOUR OWN user library. This is a bad idea. I understand why it works... of course if you bypass the security controls on your machine then you won't have any problems with permission errors, but this is not an adequate replacement for a proper solution that maintains your Mac's security.


This proposed solution is like me complaining to a locksmith "The key to my front door isn't working," and the locksmith taking a hammer and ripping the lock off the door, and saying, "It's fixed!"


Does anyone have a solution that isn't so irresponsible?

Instead of the entire preference folder do the same steps to each adobe folder inside the prefference folder, and instead of adding all the users only add administrators and yourself. I just did this on my mac and it works.

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New Here ,
Feb 14, 2016 Feb 14, 2016

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Mohammed, I follow your instructions! Thank you so much for your help. It works!

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New Here ,
Sep 08, 2017 Sep 08, 2017

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This is not solved, as some MacBook Pro users (mainly me) have updated the Preferences folder permissions to 777 and still cannot open InDesign.

Additionally, I confirmed that this was the correct Preferences folder (contains necessary preferences for Adobe) and also tried to set permissions recursively so all subsequent files/directories follow the permission update. No luck.

Additionally, additionally, this was first reported in 2013 and still doesn't have an appropriate fix for it. mwillems is completely right in concluding that this issue needs to be fixed on Adobe's end and not by this method.

Additionally, additionally, additionally, what is the point of having a subscription to these products if crap isn't fixed in a timely manner? It makes sense at that point to buy the old stable versions that actually work and just forgo all of the new awesome features that aren't accessible. 

Rave please offer some explanation Adobe as this is not the comment of a happy customer (more sad than mad, but sorta mad)

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New Here ,
Apr 17, 2020 Apr 17, 2020

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I know this is three years late, but for someone else with the same issue: oddly going in through the GUI and changing the preferences folder to add "admin" and then give R&W is NOT the same as just chmod -R 777 Preferences/Adobe*. Note that "admin" is NOT my administrator user name, but rather the entire collective group of users. I have no idea why this is Adobe-specific, no other application installed on my computer had a similar issue, but I noticed previously that Adobe (and only Adobe) had somehow changed their chown to "root" rather than my user name. I chowned it back to my regular user name as well. 

 

I have an external harddrive that I switch between computers — sometimes as a boot disk, sometimes not — and thus had to mess around (a lot...) to get this to work. 

 

I don't use InDesign but this fixed both Illustrator and Photoshop for me.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 23, 2023 Mar 23, 2023

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LATEST

Thank you. Helped me a lot. Strange that this changed by 'itself'. A few days ago Indesign worked great. For the rest, this repair is a bit clumsy. 😉

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Explorer ,
Aug 20, 2014 Aug 20, 2014

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Thank you very much Mohammed, clear and easy to follow steps, worked immediately.

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Explorer ,
Jun 17, 2015 Jun 17, 2015

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Worked for me thanks!

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New Here ,
Aug 25, 2015 Aug 25, 2015

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Thank you, this solved my problem as well!

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New Here ,
Oct 11, 2015 Oct 11, 2015

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And me, all fixed.

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New Here ,
Oct 19, 2015 Oct 19, 2015

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Me too! Thanks!!

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New Here ,
Oct 20, 2015 Oct 20, 2015

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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.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 12, 2015 Nov 12, 2015

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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.

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New Here ,
Nov 12, 2015 Nov 12, 2015

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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.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 13, 2015 Nov 13, 2015

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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).

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New Here ,
Mar 15, 2016 Mar 15, 2016

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This one worked for me.

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New Here ,
Mar 01, 2017 Mar 01, 2017

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Thank you, this plus the earlier tips have finally enabled me to use indesign!!

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New Here ,
Oct 08, 2018 Oct 08, 2018

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This is what finally worked for me!

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New Here ,
Feb 02, 2016 Feb 02, 2016

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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.

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