Messages does not have permission to open photo

Question

Messages does not have permission to open photo

Hello,

I just upgraded to Yosemite today and now I am getting a strange error I've never seen before in Messages. Basically if someone sends me a photo (or I send a photo using my iPhone and then look at the conversation on my mac) I see a link to the photo instead. If I try to open it I receive the error - "The application 'Messages' does not have permission to open 'IMG_4042.jpeg'."

Any ideas? Everything was working fine in Mavericks..

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 16, 2014 7:07 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

subterraneans Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 16, 2014 7:46 PM in response to subterraneans

Nevermind! I forgot I once rigged the folder where Messages saves all your photos automatically (Library > Messages > Attachments) to be Read Only so that it would stop saving them. Weird that it only caused a problem once I upgraded and Mavericks never cared that those photos had nowhere to go..

Reply

Answer 2

DJRX313

Level 1

0 points

Oct 27, 2014 1:55 PM in response to subterraneans

I'm having the same problem! Before I updated to Yosemite, I would be able to receive pics, but then after powering down and back up again, the pics were just file names. Now after my update to Yosemite, I only get file names when someone sends a pic.

I tried going to the folder you mentioned at "Library > Messages > Attachments" but it's not really a folder. The "type" of file is a TextEdit.app document. Am I not looking in the right place for the folder you are referring to?

Thank you for any help or information!

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 27, 2014 2:52 PM in response to DJRX313

Hi,

Here is the folder I mentioned:

If you "Get Info" on that attachments folder, the sharing & permissions need to be set to read & write. I purposely had set mine to "read" in Mavericks as I wasn't keen on my mac saving every picture exchanged via iMessage. Since that essentially meant the photos had nowhere to be saved, they stopped appearing altogether in Yosemite. I think I will just periodically empty this folder out going forward.

If the "Attachments" folder does not exist, I suspect that creating it yourself may correct the issue..

Reply

Answer 4

DJRX313

Level 1

0 points

Oct 28, 2014 4:32 PM in response to subterraneans

I seriously think you may be a genius, buddy! So... here's what happened. I looked where you told me, and instead of a Folder called "Attachments" it was a TextEdit.app Document called "Attachments" (see below). Odd, all other files were identical to your screenshot, but the Attachments file was not a folder. So per your suggestion, I created a folder called "Attachments" and I was able to receive a text pic again! Voila! I was afraid to delete the existing Attachments file so I renamed it.

I can't thank you enough for your post, response and advice! Many many thanks!

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 3, 2014 2:01 PM in response to subterraneans

I am still having this issue. I have gone through to the Library>Messages>Attachments folder, and changed its privacy settings to read and write for everyone (including myself). I have cleared out the Attachments folder (no issue with the TextEdit thing, it was already a folder), but I still get the "The application “Messages” does not have permission to open example.jpg" message when I try to open an image, and the pictures show up as IMG_#### (numbers) in the message window. Anyone have any suggestions?

Reply

Answer 6

Mar 21, 2015 10:45 AM in response to subterraneans

I send the previous post ... You are a genius! I also had the Attachments folder missing. After I created it, all is worked perfectly fine.

Reply

Answer 7

Oct 13, 2016 1:31 PM in response to DJRX313

I've had this problem for a year now and stumbled upon this and finaly fixed the problem!

Thank you!!!!!

Reply

Answer 8

Oct 13, 2016 1:56 PM in response to torchinaces

Hi,

In ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Messages do you have an Alias pointing to the Actual Attachments folder.

The process is that stuff is Written via the Above path and eventually placed in the Attachments folder

You have to have permission to Read and Write to all the folders contained in the path as well as Read and Write permissions to the end destination Attachments folder as well.

9:56 pm Thursday; October 13, 2016

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone and an iPad (2)

Reply