fidlet
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: preview says I don't have permission to open any of my files

For some reason, whenever I try to open a file in preview (pdf, jpg, whatever), it says I don't have permission to view it. However, I am the owner of all these files (and I can open the files fine in other applications). Here is the screenshot of the error message: Screenshot 2012-03-08 at 14.04.52.png

I'm using Lion, version 10.7.3 (11D50b).

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 8, 2012 11:12 AM

by fidlet,Solvedanswer
fidlet fidlet
Level 1 (1 points)
A:

Actually, I just installed a software update and rebooted my computer. That seemed to solve the problem! (Though, for your info...I was the owner, and had read/write permissions on all of these files. It had issues with ALL of my files, for some reason).

Posted on Mar 8, 2012 11:36 AM

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fidlet

Q: preview says I don't have permission to open any of my files

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  • Helpful answers

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack Mar 8, 2012 11:26 AM in response to fidlet
    Level 9 (55,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 8, 2012 11:26 AM in response to fidlet

    Choose color-chooser.jpg and "Get Ingo" Give us a screenshot of the info screen.

  • by fidlet,Solvedanswer

    fidlet fidlet Mar 8, 2012 11:36 AM in response to macjack
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Mar 8, 2012 11:36 AM in response to macjack

    Actually, I just installed a software update and rebooted my computer. That seemed to solve the problem! (Though, for your info...I was the owner, and had read/write permissions on all of these files. It had issues with ALL of my files, for some reason).

  • by g_lazz,

    g_lazz g_lazz Jul 23, 2012 9:07 AM in response to fidlet
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2012 9:07 AM in response to fidlet

    I have the same issue... I attempted a screenshot of the info screen and it also won't open because "i don't have permission to view it" so I can't attach the image of the screenshot...  any thoughts?

  • by iSilentP,

    iSilentP iSilentP Oct 21, 2013 10:05 PM in response to fidlet
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2013 10:05 PM in response to fidlet

    For me, what I determined was the culprit is Preview app. Quiting Preview app and then trying to open the file works--every time!

     

    I believe it is a bug in the Preview app tyhat somehow it gets hung up and will not allow you to open any filetype associated with the Preview app, which in my case is *.png, *.jpg, *.pdf.

  • by Topher Kessler,

    Topher Kessler Topher Kessler Oct 21, 2013 10:38 PM in response to fidlet
    Level 6 (9,866 points)
    Oct 21, 2013 10:38 PM in response to fidlet

    This is likely a problem with the system's sandboxing routines for Preview. Relaunching the program and/or restarting the system should fix it, but if not then go to the Go menu in the Finder, hold the Option key, and choose "Library." Then go to the Containers folder and remove the folder called "com.apple.Preview" and then try relaunching the program to see if this helps.

  • by OrnotBitwise,

    OrnotBitwise OrnotBitwise Feb 8, 2014 11:21 AM in response to Topher Kessler
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 8, 2014 11:21 AM in response to Topher Kessler

    Workaraounds are all well and good but a genuine FIX would be better. No offense to you intended, Topher: you didn't create the problem.

     

    (Or did you?)

  • by Sciuriware,

    Sciuriware Sciuriware Jul 1, 2014 9:39 AM in response to Topher Kessler
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 1, 2014 9:39 AM in response to Topher Kessler

    This problem is still here for me on Mavericks: I can't preview my own screen shots!

    All of the remedies mentioned and all those mentioned in other places failed.

    I hate to say that I'm looking for an other application to view my picture files.

    ;JOOP!

  • by genevieve_photo,

    genevieve_photo genevieve_photo Jul 1, 2014 10:43 AM in response to Sciuriware
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2014 10:43 AM in response to Sciuriware

    This problem are suddenly here from yesterday ! What's the cause?

  • by billg_02176,

    billg_02176 billg_02176 Aug 28, 2015 2:51 PM in response to iSilentP
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 28, 2015 2:51 PM in response to iSilentP

    This worked for me as well. I simply quit out of Preview and was able to open the file directly with ""Use Preview" and it opened perfectly.

     

    Thank you !

     

    Bill

  • by jmrowland,

    jmrowland jmrowland Jun 10, 2016 7:35 PM in response to fidlet
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 10, 2016 7:35 PM in response to fidlet

    I have the same issue. In El Capitan. Which states that this doesn't happen in El Capitan.

  • by jmrowland,

    jmrowland jmrowland Jun 10, 2016 7:42 PM in response to Sciuriware
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 10, 2016 7:42 PM in response to Sciuriware

    Same thing is happening to me in El Capitan. Get Info has nothing but misinfo in it. It says file suffix is hidden; it's not. It says I have read/write permission; I don't (but only in Preview; the preview in Finder columns view works perfectly, and the files open okay in all other apps).

  • by iceninja12,

    iceninja12 iceninja12 Jun 17, 2016 8:32 PM in response to jmrowland
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 17, 2016 8:32 PM in response to jmrowland

    I had the same problem in El Capitan 10.11.5. In my case it was a transient problem that went away without me having to fix anything.

     

    Here's what I observed for future record: I was able to open some files with Preview but not others. I've noticed that when I looked at the files in terminal using "ls -l", those could be opened showed "-rwxrwxrwx@" and those that couldn't be opened showed "-rwxrwxrwx" (without the trailing "@"). The man page for ls says "

    If the file or directory has extended attributes, the permissions field printed by the -l option is followed by a '@' character." which is not particularly helpful.

     

    The files without @ could be opened with other apps (say, Chrome) but not with Preview. Simply restarting Preview didn't help but eventually the problem went away without restarting the system or using other workarounds from this thread. Once the problem went away, all files showed the "@" in the permission field when using "ls -l"

     

    Oh, an in my case all files were in the same directory copied from the same memory card of a digital camera.

  • by Megabite47,

    Megabite47 Megabite47 Jun 25, 2016 9:02 AM in response to Topher Kessler
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 25, 2016 9:02 AM in response to Topher Kessler

    I'm running El Capitan and have been previewing 1000 images at a time and had this error every time I went to do the next batch, restarting finder didnt fix it, but restarting the whole computer fixed it each time, but very time consuming.  Your suggestion worked.  Could this be called a 'bug' to be reported or is it just that I am asking too much of preview to open 1000 images at a time? (I have to rotate and delete some BEFORE importing to photos)