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The last two versions of Tor Browser that I have tried on Mac OS are still OK for the admin account but when I try to launch in my normal user account, I get

Tor Browser does not have permission to access the profile.
Please adjust your file system permissions and try again.

Thinking it could be related to my adding a line to torrc, I chmod that to 777 but it didn't help. I ran fs_usage(1) to try to figure out what files it was hitting, but there are zillions of output lines per millisecond. I did see that it was hitting files in ..../TorBrowser.app/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile* so I changed the group on all of those. Still doesn't work (and none of the files I just changed group on have ever been touched by me before).

Knowing that the Tor Browser is derived from FireFox, I deleted the app completely, along with a file elsewhere that had "torproject" as part of its filename, and deleted my entire ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox directory (which contains the FireFox profile). Installed a freshly downloaded copy of the Tor Browser and tried again. Same error.

So I'm puzzled....

m894v5n74v539nm8
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WGroleau
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3 Answers3

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I think this will be a general ownership problem.

I'm suspecting that you downloaded the DMG file, and unpacked it, as the admin user. To run as a normal user, you'll need to download and unpack it using that user's account.

The reason for this is that only the owner of the file can write to the profile (because it is their profile).

The 'profile' is in TorBrowser.app/TorBrowser/Data/Browser but 'chown' and 'chmod' on those files/directories will not solve the problem. Not sure why, but these only introduce weirder errors. Each tor user will have to have his or her own copy of the application.

UPDATE: As has been stated elsewhere, "Each tor user will have to have his or her own copy" was a poor design decision (or more likely, something not considered). But I say was because 6.0 resolves that issue. TBB on Mac now looks for the user's profile in a directory under ~/Library/Application\ Support (and creates it if necessary).

WGroleau
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Richard Horrocks
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I found a solution; a weird one though!

  1. Option-Drag the TorBrowser application from the Application folder to the Desktop.
  2. Remove the TorBrowser application from the Application folder
  3. Option-Drag the TorBrowser application from the desktop back to the Application folder

Don't know why it worked but, for me, it did!

(Note: I actually duplicated the TorBrowser application inside the Application folder before option-dragging the copy to the desktop. I then renamed it back to it's original name and then, after deleting both applications (original and copy) in the Applications folder, I dragged it back. I don't think these extra steps are required though.)

Jens Kubieziel
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Phil Faber
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Simply right click on "Start Tor Browser". From the list that follows, click on "Run as Administrator". This should work.

Sona Thaj
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