Allow Permissions to Lightroom Classic on macOS

Since macOS 10.14 (Mojave), Apple has a new privacy structure to help ensure that all applications obtain user consent before accessing documents, downloads, desktop, and network volumes. Sometimes, after macOS upgrades, these permissions get revoked. In such cases, you may see a "No Photo Found" message while accessing the folders such as Documents, Downloads, Desktop, External Volumes, or Network Volume, even though they are connected.

You may see error messages like:

  • No Photos Found message while accessing a folder during import
  • Image missing icon while accessing an image
Note:

If not providing permission to standard folders is intentional, you can ignore the following message and select Don't Show Again.

error

Note:

 If you have Time Machine mounted on your system, the dialog may appear. It is advised to ignore it by selecting Don't show again.

Provide Files and Folders access to Lightroom Classic

To provide Files and Folders access to Lightroom Classic on macOS, follow the steps given below:

  1. Select System Settings> Privacy & Security.

    For macOS Monterey and earlier, select System Preferences > Privacy & Security.

  2. Go to Files and Folders.

  3. Select Desktop FolderDocuments FoldersDownloads Folder, and Removable Volumes from the options.

    permissions
    Files and Folders option in System Settings on macOS

Provide full access to Lightroom Classic on macOS

 How to give full disk access to Lightroom & Lightroom Classic on macOS

If you are still facing problems while accessing photos, you should give full access to Lightroom Classic by following the steps below: 

  1. Select System Settings Privacy & Security.

    For macOS Monterey and earlier, select System Preferences > Privacy & Security.

  2. Go to Full Disk Access.

  3. Select Adobe Lightroom Classic.

    full-disk-access

    If Lightroom Classic is not available in the list of applications, you can add Lightroom Classic by clicking the (+) button and navigating to the Applications folder on macOS.

Note:

Here's a Quick tip to easily grant Full Disk Access to Lightroom Classic on macOS. The step-by-step instructions will ensure that Lightroom Classic has the permission to seamlessly access and manage files on your Mac's disk or external storage devices.

Use a script to restore permissions

If you face an issue with folder permissions, try this easy-to-run, shell script-based solution explained below. This shell script automatically restores ownership and read/write permissions and removes the Access Control List (ACL) from the set of Adobe user folders and their subfolders.

To run the shell script, do the following:

  1. Download LightroomCorrectPermission.zip using the above link. By default, the file is downloaded to /Users/[user name]/Downloads/LightroomCorrectPermission.zip.
  2. Unzip the downloaded zip file to extract the LightroomCorrectPermission.sh shell script file.
  3. On your Mac desktop, type Terminal in the Spotlight search box and launch the Terminal app.
  4. From the Finder, drag the unzipped LightroomCorrectPermission.sh shell-script file (from step 2) onto the Terminal window. You see the following text in the terminal window:
    /Users/[username]/Downloads/LightroomCorrectPermission.sh
  5. Press Enter to run the shell script.
  6. When prompted, enter your Mac login credentials.
    Note: Ensure that you use the account with administrator privilege to log in.
  7. Launch Lightroom.

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