Cannot save any kind of file

Question

I am unable to save any file in Ubuntu. When I download any file using Firefox this dialog appears

could not be saved, because you cannot change the contents of that folder.Change the folder properties and try again, or try saving in a different location

and when I save any file from LibreOffice it shows

Error saving the document Untitled2: /home/user/Desktop/Untitled 2.odt does not exist. Error saving the document Untitled2: Write Error. The file could not be written.

I have even tried many locations but unable to save anything.

Solution 1

Probably the permissions or ownership of files and directories in your home directory got messed up.

To fix ownership by giving it back to your current user for all files in your home directory, you can run this command in a terminal (will ask for your admin password):

sudo chown -R $USER: ~

If the problem is not ownership but permissions, you should provide the output of ls -l ~ so that we can see the file/directory listing of your home directory and check what permissions are likely wrong. Simply resetting all permissions to a new value would not be good here.

Solution 2

I had this same problem in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Like Abhishek yadav above, I reset the permissions for /tmp.

In a terminal window enter:

sudo chmod a=rwx,o+t /tmp

Comments

[Byte Commander]

Could you please edit your question and add the output of the terminal command ls -l ~?

[Satya Prakash]

I recently upgraded to 18.04. I can't save any file from browsers. Chrome and FF. Also, from libre office. From gEdit, I can create file and save. After upgrade, I tried in fstab. And due to error, I need to issue command to make RW to fstab file from emergency mode. Please, help.

[Greenonline]

This doesn't seem to add much to the previous fsck answer.

[matigo]

Something tells me that LibreOffice doesn't use Firefox's temporary directory for storage 🤔

[Zanna]

@matigo indeed, I guess there are further permission issues in Vercingatorix's home directory that need to be sorted out. I have no such directory but surely no directory should have 6 permission for any user. I suspect it should be 700. I wonder how this situation might have arisen...

[Vercingatorix]

@matigo The OP mentioned Firefox problems, in addition to LibreOffice, and Google brought this up as a relevant hit for the Firefox error message I was getting. I guess technically my answer doesn't apply to the exact situation the OP proposed after all (my apologies), but someone searching for the same Firefox error might find my answer and find the solution useful.