Auto update isn't working in VSCode: Could not create temporary directory: Permission denied

Question

From certain point I started getting this error from time to time(I suppose it fires when editor tries to check for updates), and manual/auto update doesn't work. The only way I can update the editor is re-download the app and replace it manually.

Does someone face same issue and successfully resolved?

score 79 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 05 '20 at 07:05

79

The above solution works, but it is like using a sledge hammer to kill a house fly.

Go to Caches cd ~/Library/Caches.
Check ownership of folders. ls -la
You will probably see drwxr--r-- 2 root staff 64 Nov 15 09:37 com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt
Run sudo chown <username>:staff com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt

This allows you to only update that folder owner and won't touch the other folders. You can break over item unexpectedly.

edited Oct 05 '20 at 07:05

Radu Chiriac

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answered Dec 10 '19 at 14:37

barney74

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If you're using VSCodium, the cache folder to fix is `com.visualstudio.code.oss.ShipIt`. – JamesRat Apr 06 '20 at 16:21
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This should be the accepted answer! – bzx Oct 16 '21 at 19:14
@bzx agreed! This is a better solution – forkinspace Aug 12 '22 at 12:37

score 75 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 24 '22 at 10:51

75

Try to type the following commands in a terminal:

cd ~/Library/Caches

sudo chown -R $(whoami):staff *

edited Oct 24 '22 at 10:51

wzr1337

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answered Apr 06 '19 at 20:37

pakhilov

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Thanks, it worked, could you explain in your answer(or comment) what is in this directory and what is `:staff` ? – flppv Apr 07 '19 at 07:44
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chown changeowner . -R recursion * for all in this directory And you user with group stuff become founder of all in this directory – pakhilov Apr 08 '19 at 19:12
This did the trick for me. There was actually several files/folders in the `~/Library/Caches` folder owned by `root:staff`. – BogeyMan Aug 21 '19 at 00:43
how to handle when having multiple admin users on the macOS, the folder is with permission to user X and i'm user Y. should I just set the folder 775? – Mateus Silva Jul 10 '20 at 15:51
@pakhilov what do you have to say about barney74's [answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/59269643/13929340) ? – A P Jo Sep 24 '20 at 06:34
thank you, @jcuypers, but which username is it? where can i locate the username i am using? – yts61 Oct 26 '20 at 03:31
`sudo chown -R :staff *` - in what directory is this supposed to be executed? home? – szx Nov 22 '21 at 12:03
This one solves this error too: "Cannot use 'in' operator to search for 'instanceId' in 0" with a python debugger on vscode – Ivan Camilito Ramirez Verdes Jan 03 '22 at 16:26
Didn't have `com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt` but `Microsoft` directory, received some permission denied for some apple objects, and VS Code is still complaining `Could not create temporary directory: Permission denied` with a sub-message `Source: update service`. VS Code 1.72.1. – Rafs Oct 26 '22 at 08:14
`find ~/Library/Caches -uid 0` outputs the files/directories being owned by root (uid 0) – simon04 May 20 '23 at 18:30

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 22 '21 at 12:06

In my case, ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt was owned by root:staff all of a sudden. I fixed it by running the following command:

sudo chown -R $USER:'staff' ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt

(added single quotes around the group name because ZSH didn't like it)

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 30 '22 at 09:31

I had a similar problem with update VSCode after supplemental update and bug fixes for my macOS Catalina 10.15.6 on 12.08.2020. I solved the problem with the manual update VSCode:

goto last changes on the official site.
Downloads: ~~Windows: User System~~| Mac | ~~Linux: snap deb rpm tarball~~
mv ~/Downloads/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app/ ~/Applications/ or move/copy Visual Studio Code.app into Applications folder
Launch the Visual Studio Code.app and enjoy the latest version.

After that, the application should auto update the new version without any problems !

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 07 '21 at 20:02

I use the following script to manually download/install the new version (e.g. under /opt/). The old dir is backed-up. Also in case of network failure I can rerun the script to resume.

vscode-update

#!/bin/bash
set -e
cd /opt/
datetime=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H%m%S")
dateonly=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")
downloadedfile="vscode_download_$dateonly.tar.gz"
backupfile="VSCode-linux-x64_backup_$datetime"
url=https://update.code.visualstudio.com/latest/linux-x64/stable


echo "Downloading $url --> $(pwd)/$downloadedfile"
wget --continue -O "$downloadedfile" $url

echo "backing up old vscode under: $backupfile"
mv VSCode-linux-x64/ "$backupfile"

echo "extracting: $downloadedfile"
tar xvzf "$downloadedfile"

echo "UPDATE DONE!"

Auto update isn't working in VSCode: Could not create temporary directory: Permission denied

5 Answers5