EditShare Connect on macOS: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/private/tmp/.editshare-socket'

Symptoms

When launching EditShare Connect on macOS, the application may fail to sign in and display an error similar to:

Unknown error occurred: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/private/tmp/.editshare-socket'

This issue can occur on Macs that are shared by multiple users.

Cause

EditShare Connect creates a temporary socket file at:

/private/tmp/.editshare-socket

If EditShare Connect does not exit cleanly—for example, if the application crashes, macOS is restarted unexpectedly, or a user logs out without EditShare Connect shutting down properly—the socket file may be left behind.

The file remains owned by the macOS login account that originally created it.

For example:

macOS login "derek" runs EditShare Connect
        ↓
Connect creates /private/tmp/.editshare-socket
        ↓
Connect does not exit cleanly
        ↓
Socket file remains owned by macOS user "derek"
        ↓
A different macOS login, "clive", signs into the same Mac
        ↓
"clive" launches EditShare Connect
        ↓
"clive" does not have permission to access derek's socket file
        ↓
[Errno 13] Permission denied

In this example, derek and clive are macOS user/login accounts on the workstation, not EditShare Connect or EFS user accounts.

Resolution

First, close EditShare Connect completely.

Open Terminal on the affected Mac and run:

sudo rm /private/tmp/.editshare-socket

Enter the macOS administrator password when prompted.

Once the file has been removed, reopen EditShare Connect and sign in normally.

EditShare Connect will recreate the socket file with the appropriate ownership for the currently logged-in macOS user.

Optional verification

Before deleting the socket, you can confirm that it exists and check which macOS account owns it:

ls -la /private/tmp/.editshare-socket

For example:

srwxr-xr-x  1 derek  wheel  0 Sep 18 10:24 /private/tmp/.editshare-socket

If the socket is owned by a different macOS login account from the user currently running EditShare Connect, this confirms the likely cause.

Summary

Error:

[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/private/tmp/.editshare-socket'

Cause:
A socket file left behind by a different macOS login account.

Fix:

Make sure EditShare Connect is closed before removing the socket, then reopen the application.

sudo rm /private/tmp/.editshare-socket