Today’s Question: I’ve recently started getting an error indicating that Lightroom Classic does not have access to some “standard folders”. The Learn More link explains what to do, but is there any reason not to enable this security setting for Lightroom Classic?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The issue in question only applies to Macintosh users, and I do recommend enabling Lightroom Classic to access to the folders to avoid potential confusion or problems in your workflow.
More Detail: The message in question relates to security settings in the Macintosh operating system, related to permission for applications to access the “standard” folders in the operating system, which includes folders such as Desktop, Documents, and Downloads, among others.
It appears to me that this issue has arisen anew with the update to MacOS Monterey (12.5.1), although the overall security settings have been in place since the release of MacOS Mojave. Thus, users who have upgraded their operating system recently, including myself, may be seeing the alert message about folder permissions.
I do recommend providing Lightroom Classic with access to the standard folders, especially if you will be storing photos within any of those folders. The setting can be updated in the Security & Privacy section of System Preferences.
To get started click on the Apple logo at the far left of the menu bar and choose System Preferences. Go to Security & Privacy and navigate to the Privacy tab. Click the lock icon at the bottom-left corner of the System Preferences dialog and enter your system password to enable changes. Then turn on the checkboxes under Adobe Lightroom Classic on the list to the right of the “Files and Folders” selection. I recommend turning on all the checkboxes for Lightroom Classic, though you could obviously leave some off if you have a reason to prevent Lightroom Classic from accessing specific storage locations.
With this option enabled you should no longer see the message about this permission issue unless it arises again with a future update to the operating system or to Lightroom Classic.
