Ever had this error message come up when using Pro Tools? “Could not create a new document because Permission denied (13) while creating…” In this article, we explain what this error message means and suggest ways of resolving the issue.

This came to light when community member Dean Covill tweeted about a version of this error message saying…

“Love a good error message that I’ve not seen before. This is with 10.13.6 PTU 2020.5 with Pro Tools failing to launch. Solution is type this in Terminal - ‘diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`’ “

Before you copy this and use it in Apple’s Terminal we strongly advise you to stop and read the rest of this article.

I have to say as a Pro Tools user of some 25 years I had never seen this error message, so I decided to research what it was all about and in this article, I am going to share what we have found as it is as rare as I thought it was.

If you Google this message then there are several occurrences but each with a slightly different ending.

Could not create a document because Permission denied (13) while creating “Project Cache”

This is an error message that can come up when using Pro Tools First. Typically this is seen on macOS systems where permissions have been set incorrectly, and then manifesting when you come to use Pro Tools.

The problem is that there are permission issues with the folder being used to create the cache and cloud project information, which means that the folder cannot be accessed by the owner of the User Account. Common reasons that can cause this are…

• Migration of data from one computer/disk to another.

• Using the macOS Time Machine or other third-party apps for System/User data backup without retaining user permissions in file path and folder locations. This can happen when a user gets a new computer or restores a computer to its factory state.

• The user account being used may have restricted access and so does not have the permissions to access the location where the needed file/folder resides. 

The recommended fix for this is the following…

1. Go to Mac HD (or whatever your startup drive is called) > Users > your User (home icon) > Documents > Pro Tools or in Finder menu, click Go and select Documents and locate Pro Tools folder.

2. "Get Info" on the Pro Tools folder in Documents. To "Get Info," right-click the Pro Tools folder and select "Get Info" (or use the Keyboard shortcut Command+I). An info window will pop up.

3. On the bottom left-hand corner, click the lock icon to make changes, you will be asked to enter your Administrator password.

4. Set Privileges to "Read & Write" for your User account. Click the lock icon again to prevent further changes.

5. Next, inside the Pro Tools folder, locate the sub-folder "Project Cache".

6. Repeat the steps for the Project Cache folder as well. "Get Info," unlock, change User permissions to "Read & Write," and re-lock.

7. Restart your Mac and try creating the project once more.

Now that the folders' user permissions have been changed, Pro Tools should be able to access the Project Cache folder for creating and opening Projects. 

Could not create a document because Permission denied (13) while creating “Project Locations”

This was the version of the Permissions Denied (13) error message that Dean Covill experienced with 10.13.6 PTU 2020.5 and Pro Tools failing to launch. Dean explained…

“It took me a good 4 hours to flush this one out. Unlucky 13 I guess! I’ve recently upgraded to High Sierra and Pro Tools Ultimate 2020.5. The obvious things I tried were trashing preferences, re-installing Pro Tools, re-installing the OS. Then I went into each relevant folder to make sure the read/write permissions were correct. Still nothing.

I then figured it was beyond Pro Tools and hidden deep in the OS. As we know the disk permissions feature went with El Capitan. I stumbled across a way to still repair permissions via Terminal. Typed in the code whilst holding a deep breath and it worked.”

This instruction uses the ‘diskutil’ code to reset User Permissions of the User’s Home Directory, otherwise known as the House icon on your Mac.

Warning: The Terminal code that Dean used is not without potential problems.

Firstly typing any instruction into Terminal should not be undertaken likely. One typo risks the possibility of significant damage to your computer.

Secondly, this code uses a character called a ‘back tic’ which is a character found on the tilde "~" key. It is not an apostrophe.

Take Care

So if you are going to type in this code then be very careful and make sure you use a back tic and not an apostrophe.

If you choose to copy and paste from this article then you do this at your own risk and we do not accept any responsibility if anything goes wrong with your computer. Note that you do not need the apostrophes before and after the code.