Upgrading IntelliJ IDEA after Sierra Upgrade: does not have write access to /private/var

Question

Trying to upgrade Intellij IDEA from 2016.2 to 2016.2.5 and I am getting this error:

IDEA does not have write access to /private/var/folders/_q/7md3pcy1

Answer 1

I've just encountered something very similar while testing jar updates with my app AuctionSieve.

The problem occurs when you run the app from the Downloads folder and try to do the update - it gets FileNotFoundExceptions because the entire folder macOS creates under /private/var/folders is a read-only filesystem. You can't change the permissions of the files at all.

Moving the app from the Downloads folder to the Applications folder solved the problem!