MacOS asks if soffice can access its Library

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I recently saw an error that I have never seen before about 'soffice' access to library. I am using AOO 4.1.10 on an iMac with Mac OS Monterey 12.0.1. By default when I see an unusual prompt for access, I deny it. Now I am unable to use Open Office unless I allow library permissions that were never requested prior to today.

[RoryOF]

This arises from an improper close down of OpenOffice- too hasty to permit the OpenOffice housekeeping information to be tidied up and written, or perhaps by an over hasty power of of the computer. There is a left-over lock file either in the folder in which your file is Saved, or in the root of your OpenOffice User profile.

See Q16/A16 in this tutorial for a solution
[Tutorial] Mac FAQ

[MrProgrammer]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I recently saw an error that I have never seen before about 'soffice' access to library. I am using AOO 4.1.10 on an iMac with Mac OS Monterey 12.0.1. By default when I see an unusual prompt for access, I deny it.

It wasn't an error. It was a decision for you to make.

Now I am unable to use Open Office unless I allow library permissions that were never requested prior to today.

If MacOS asked for permission to allow soffice (the main OpenOffice module) to access ~/Library and you told MacOS to deny that, you have broken OpenOffice because its user profile is in ~/Library. When OpenOffice does not have write access to the profile, you will receive the message shown in your post. You will have to restore the access that you denied. I cannot help you with that because I run MacOS 10.14.6 and have no experience with this new feature of MacOS 12. If you review the topics in this forum I think you'll find that no one else is experiencing the problem you have, which suggests that there is something wrong with your MacOS configuration.

You'll either need to:
• Solve the problem yourself, say, by reading Apple's documentation for your system
• Wait for someone else at this forum to help you
• Find an Apple forum to help you with MacOS settings

Just as a guess, look at your settings in  → Security and Privacy → Privacy. The Privacy settings you have on MacOS 12.0.1 are probably different than mine on MacOS 10.14.6. I am definitely interested in a solution that you find so I can update [Tutorial] Mac FAQ with that information. Please post it here.

If you are unable to restore the access which you denied, you can use iWork, the text processor, spreadsheet, and presentation manager from Apple since you did not break those applications. You can access content in your current OpenOffice files with the Guest User account, since you did not deny soffice access there.
Q59: Can I exchange documents between OpenOffice and iWork, Apple's office suite?
Q28: How do I use the Guest User account to run a test?
Q29: How can I access a file from the Guest User account without a USB drive?

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So after reinstalling the latest version and attempting to run Open Office, I now get the following fatal error. I have also captured a screen shot of the privacy perms for Open Office which appear to be checked for everything available in the system preferences of OO. Open to other suggestions on resolving.

I am not a programmer. I am not willing to apologize (nor should anyone) for a confusing prompt or user interface. As a non-programmer, any unexpected (out-of-the-blue) prompt requesting system access is viewed as a risk. Access requests should be more clear and less cryptic. At a minimum, a prompt could direct the user to manually make the permissions change within system preferences.

In my view, why should the permissions need to be changed at all? I have been using OO on my new iMac for months and have never seen a Library permissions prompt. Seems totally sketchy to me that all of a sudden that would change.