El Capitan Preview permission issues" couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it."

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Level 1

7 points

El Capitan Preview permission issues" couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it."

Upgraded to El Capitan yesterday - now getting permission errors when trying to open JPGs. I have read several posts on attempts to fix the issue - but given that the disk permissions have been removed from Disk Utility, am hesitant to try those techniques. I have tried to right click on each file and "reset" the permissions which didn't do anything, and I run the First Aid under Disk Utility. That seems to fix the problems for a little while but then randomly reappears.

Is there a 10.11 disk repair utility or command line that can be run?

Posted on Oct 7, 2015 4:10 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 7, 2015 4:48 PM in response to jmdev24

now getting permission errors when trying to open JPGs

In which application(s)? Where are the JPEG's?

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Answer 2

jmdev24 Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 7, 2015 6:05 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you for the reply. JPEG's are on my Mac's hard drive ("Macintosh HD"). These errors are isolated only to Preview. It's any file associated with Preview. Sometimes I click on a file to open it (Preview is default) and get the error "<file> couldn't be opened because you don't have permission to view it". Other times, I will selected a batch of files then double click on them and will get an error saying I don't have permission to that folder. Sometimes I will try to rename the file in the Preview menu bar dropdown and get an error saying I don't have permission. But then I locate that file in the Finder window and can rename it just fine. I can also open the images in any other image viewer (ex Photoshop). Disk utility First Aid no longer seems to do anything - I am not sure it ever did.

I also tried adding myself as a user with read/write permissions at the volume level to no avail. OS X El Capitan: If you don’t have permission to use files on a disk

It's more of an annoyance than anything - interrupts my workflow. I didn't have this issue upgrading from Mavericks to Yosemite on the same Mac. To me, it seems like a permissions repair issue but that 'verify disk permissions' and 'repair disk permissions' has been removed in El Capitan.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 7, 2015 6:26 PM in response to jmdev24

I also tried adding myself as a user with read/write permissions at the volume level to no avail.

Please undo that immediately. Never again change the permissions of any file.

Back up all data. Quit Preview if it's running.

Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following items, if they exist:

Containers/com.apple.Preview

Containers/com.apple.quicklook.ui.helper

Group Containers/com.apple.Preview

Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist

Preferences/com.apple.Preview.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist

Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState

Log out and log back in. Launch the application and test.

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Answer 4

Oct 8, 2015 4:35 AM in response to Linc Davis

I had similar problems with permissions after upgrading from Yosemite to El Capitan.

A Parameter RAM Reset seems to fix it for me.

So start your Mac, hold

CMD-ALT P R

and wait until the startup chime is played the second time. Then let your Mac boot normally.

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Answer 5

Oct 10, 2015 10:52 AM in response to michaelruhland

Both methods recommended above by Linc Davis and Michael Ruhland helped me, but only temporarily.

I want to compare several folders containing an average of 110 large .jpg photos apiece, but Preview refused to let me use Select All and open them that way beyond five folders a go. Then I got the error message every time.

It occurred to me to take a look at Preview's File --> Open function, to notice that the app was constantly defaulting to iCloud. Once i saw that, I started using File --> Open to tackle a series of folders in turn "on my Mac" and this time Preview raised no objections when I went well past the limit.

But it remains an buggy issue that needs fixing in OS X 10.11.1.

I also bemoan the loss of the ability to switch straight between full-screen thumbnails and individual pictures.

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Answer 6

jmdev24 Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 10, 2015 11:02 AM in response to musicwolf

Thanks for the replies guys. I've been using OS X since 2005 so not a novice myself. To me, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze to upgrade. I rolled back to Yosemite 10.10.5 via Time Machine. I can't have my workflow interrupted like that so consistently. The last straw was connecting my NTFS external drive and it reverted back to read only, even though I have a Paragon driver installed to allow NTFS read/write. Since rolling back to Yosemite everything is working fine on this Mac. I will just wait until I replace this one to upgrade - unless I see this issue specifically called out as a bug fix. I was surprised that in all the El Capitan reviews I read (and obviously couldn't read them all), not one mentioned this disk utility change/manual permission repair change. It was all about "stabilization", split screens, and the new San Francisco font. Nothing big.

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Answer 7

AEROJOHN

Level 1

10 points

Nov 2, 2015 6:27 PM in response to jmdev24

Hi jmdev24.

Iam also wanting to revert back to Yosemite but don't know how. How do you do this via Time Machine?
I am just totally frustrated with all the problems I am having with El Capitan. Can you help?

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Answer 8

jmdev24 Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 3, 2015 2:43 AM in response to AEROJOHN

Hello AEROJOHN - This is the procedure I used. It assumes you have a backup in Time Machine of Yosemite before the El Capitan upgrade. Also make sure the drive is connected before you reboot. May take a few seconds for it to find it upon entering recovery mode.

Choose Apple menu > Restart. After your Mac restarts and you hear the startup chime, hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys.When the Apple logo appears, you can release the keys.
Select “Restore from a Time Machine Backup,” then click Continue.
Select your Time Machine backup disk.
Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore. To restore your computer to the state it was in before you installed the new version of OS X, choose the most recent backup that occurred prior to installing OS X Yosemite.
Follow the onscreen instructions.

Source: OS X Yosemite: Revert to a previous OS X version

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Answer 9

AEROJOHN

Level 1

10 points

Nov 3, 2015 12:47 PM in response to jmdev24

Thankyou jmdev24.
Aaaahhhh. Now back with Yosemite and all is well.
Wont be upgrading that quickly in the future if there's

going to be so many bugs in the system.

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Answer 10

jmdev24 Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 3, 2015 1:19 PM in response to AEROJOHN

Good to hear. I've been running problem free as well since reverting back.

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Answer 11

AEROJOHN

Level 1

10 points

Nov 3, 2015 3:42 PM in response to jmdev24

My only problem now is that I backed up using a 27/10 backup and I now need to find

out how to restore the emails received after that date. I know they are located on the

backup hard drive but am not sure on how to retrieve them. Any advice?

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Answer 12

jmdev24 Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 3, 2015 3:46 PM in response to AEROJOHN

Afraid I can't be much help there. If you are using Apple Mail, I would assume you can also view/retrieve the messages through iCloud.com. But if they were exclusively residing on your hard drive, I don't know enough particulars to be of much help.

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Answer 13

AEROJOHN

Level 1

10 points

Nov 3, 2015 3:58 PM in response to jmdev24

Yes I'm using Apple Mail and I'm sure they're accessible somehow with time machine, just don't know how.

There are some important work emails that I have to retrieve.

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Answer 14

jmdev24 Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 3, 2015 4:00 PM in response to AEROJOHN

I'm sure there is a way - just don't know it myself. Good luck to you!

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Answer 15

a brody

Level 10

82,991 points

Nov 3, 2015 6:16 PM in response to michaelruhland

Resetting the PRAM is only recommended for Macs younger than 4 years. And internal battery or capacitor that function the same as the CMOS battery, PRAM battery, Clock battery can wear out after 4 years, and for the wrong Macs, will yield a blank screen if you attempt to reset the PRAM on them. Resetting the SMC or SMU is usually just as effective as the PRAM, as long as the computer is plugged in when you do the final power on. It should not affect permissions but it does help in isolating system wide settings that go askew because of power issues.

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