TextEdit Save Error Message "you don't have permission..."

Question

TextEdit Save Error Message "you don't have permission..."

TextEdit, in both Mountain Lion and now Mavericks,displays what appears to be a fake "Save "error:

"You don’t have permission to write to the folder that the file “XXXXX.txt” is in.

Your changes will not be saved until the problem is resolved."

I have repaired permissions several times with no result. The permissions are clean, not requiring fixing. I am Admin. I should be able to save anywhere, altho I have tried saving in many different places just to test.

It does not ask for the Admin password.

Here's when it happens:

1) Open a document. either new or existing.

2) Type some text in it.

3) Save -- choose destination if new and it seems to work.

4) Start typing in the document

5) After a few seconds I get the above error message that drops down from the title bar at the top of the document.

6) I have to click the OK button and I can go on typing.

Repeat

Save document, type a few characters, get error message, click OK.

Repeat all day long.

Yet it seems that my changes have been saved.

Most annoying.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Also a MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 12, 2013 12:10 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 12, 2013 2:08 PM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

This may or may not be related. I am not getting your message rather when I have finished typing and want to save the document - so it's not called untitled I get the message "the file Untitled.rtf" couldn't be opened. Very frustrating!!!! I can choose the destination where I want to save the file, type in the file name but I get this error message each time I hit the save button.

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Answer 2

olirees

Level 1

0 points

Dec 17, 2013 1:48 PM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

Same issue; easy to reproduce. Brand new MBP running 10.9. The save works OK, but get the curious permissions message shortly after beginning to type again.

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Answer 3

Dec 17, 2013 2:05 PM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

Fixed it. Mac repair 101: Delete preferences.

A first I was wary about deleting preferences because I used EasyFind to search for "textedit" and found many files in different folders throughout the OS and user folders. I feared deleting the wrong thing.

So with the EasyFind window open with the search results sorted by date last changed, I opened TextEdit and then its preferences and made a minor change, saved it and then closed the app.

I then ran EasyFind again sorting by date last changed and the top two items were the only preference files that were changed. Deleted those two and now all is well.

EasyFind is freeware found in the App store. It's invaluable. I use it often.

John

Mac Pro, OS 10.9.1, also a MacBook Pro.

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Answer 4

serexa

Level 1

9 points

Jan 17, 2014 4:53 AM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

Did it the same way and solved successfully.

Thanks a lot.

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Answer 5

Feb 21, 2014 11:32 AM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

You don't need an app to find com.apple.TextEdit.plist files in your Preferences folder. I have 6 and deleted them all and this didnt solve a **** thing.

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

684,057 points

Feb 21, 2014 12:53 PM in response to petekjohnson

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one.

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Answer 7

Feb 21, 2014 2:20 PM in response to petekjohnson

Your response is actually quite funny.

You didn't follow the instructions and then complained when it didn't work!

The files you deleted were not the right ones. There are many, many more and the one(s) causing the problem are not in your User/Library/Yourname/Preferences folder.

Hah, good for a laugh, tho.

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Answer 8

Feb 21, 2014 3:00 PM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

I've been doing Mac tech support off and on professionally since 1995, and if TextEdit is dumping files in as many places as you seem to think it is, that is Apple's problem, not mine. I'm certainly not going to download some stupid app to scan my entire hard drive (Spotlight already takes forever to index and search) searching for every potential file. I looked in /Library/Preferences, ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Application Support and deleted every conceivable file. Unless you are suggesting there are Frameworks and stuff in /System/Library I should be examining, I think I did all that is necessary and proper, and your preferred solution only "worked" as far as coincidenes usually do.

I understood the "directions" perfectly well, but assumed they were posted by the developer of EasyFind, as they appeared here nearly word for word multiple times.

I am very funny. This is however not a funny problem at all. But I'm certainly not going to waste a lot of time on dubious solutions.

Cheers.

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Answer 9

Feb 21, 2014 4:36 PM in response to petekjohnson

Wow. Why bother reading the forum if you are convinced the solution isn't going to work before even trying it?

Another viewer besides myself commented above that they repeated the process and it worked for them, so it's not exclusive to my setup.

A search for textedit revealed 97 files. The search took 12 seconds on my eight core Mac Pro.

I quit EasyFind, opened TextEdit and made a simple change in the preferences, saved and then quit TextEdit.

I searched again with EasyFind, sorted by Modified and found eight files had been changed at the exact time I quit TextEdit. One of those is the culprit. I deleted them all.

No, I don't work for EasyFind, nor do I know the people, nor do I receive compensation of any type from them. I like it and recommend it because it just plain works and I like to share good info like that with the Mac community, (BTW, it's free)

Good luck with solving it on your end. If you find a more scientific solution please share it so we can see how it should be done by a real tech support guy instead of an amateur like me. (I was an Apple Var at one time, now I do some support for my friends. I'm on about my tenth Mac, the first being a Fat Mac, and have two Macs and an iPhone at this time. No doubt I have no idea what I'm doing)

You really are funny! You must be a, oh never mind, I was going to name a political party.

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Answer 10

May 13, 2014 12:43 PM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

I too tried the EasyFind solution provided. That did not work for me. What I did find however, was quite odd. I had a file on my filesystem named "Untitled.rtf". I renamed that file, then textedit would once again save my files for me.

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Answer 11

Mar 1, 2015 8:02 AM in response to Sliding Otter

I tried to use the find in ~/Library/Preferences and deleted all files that file name had TextEdit in it. That didn't work. So finally was using the EasyFind solution and that didn't work either. The EasyFind located another files inside ~/Library/Containers (not in Preferences), but deleting them still did not solve the issue.

I also looked for Untitied.rtf and removing all those files also didn't help.

So I have to live with that issue. The solution for me seem to use another text editor.

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Answer 12

Saro_Da

Level 1

4 points

Oct 23, 2015 8:14 AM in response to Cave_Dweller_JC

I had a similar issue in El Capitan OSX and fixed it with the following steps:

Go to ~/Library/Containers/
Delete the folder: com.apple.TextEdit
Restart your mac
Launch TextEdit

Good luck!

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Answer 13

Dec 17, 2015 1:16 AM in response to Saro_Da

I have tried all those suggested solutions and none helped in my case. I still have the problem on my both Mac: old MacOSX 10.7.5 and the newest 10.10.2. They both have exactly the same issue. The problem is so annoying that I had to stop using Text Edit.

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