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 prefer to use this CLI command to update everything.

$ brew cask reinstall intellij-idea.

Answer 2

sudo chmod -R 777 IntelliJ\ IDEA\ CE.app/

this command works for the newer versions

Answer 3

It happened to me as well on my Mac Os. The problem is that IntelliJ was mounted as a disk image at every start. I added to the application menu bar the installer or I don't know what. I then started the app from the application list and the problem was solved. So be sure you are not mounting an image

Answer 4

I had the same problem, the only thing that I do was the next:

$ brew cask reinstall intellij-idea.

After that I open the IntelliJ and select the option related with import previous config.

That new version is able to be updated.

Answer 5

I know this is quite an old post, but I found a quick solution in MacOS.

1. Navigate to your .app file, and view the contents of it.

2. Right click on the "Contents" folder, and go to "Get Info".

3. In the permissions section, select "Read & write" for each element.

4. Restart IntelliJ.

This solved the problem for me, hope it helps others too!

Answer 6

If you face this issue in MacOS Mojave, then you should execute following command:

sudo chmod -R 775 /Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app/Contents/