PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted after macOS Catalina Update

Question

After installing macOS 10.15 Catalina I am getting the following error for simple file and directory operations in Python 3.x: "PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted"

Several operations trigger this error including opening an existing file from the cwd using open(...,'rb'), listdir() and getcwd().

After updating to Catalina and finding that Anaconda and Spyder wouldn't open I read about some of the problems. I removed Anaconda and re-installed it in /Users/myname/ using the .sh terminal installer. Conda and Spyder now open but I still can't perform the operations above.

This works:

os.chdir(basedir)

These do not work and throw the error above:

os.getcwd()
Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<ipython-input-3-a78b1fb2bab9>", line 1, in <module>
    os.getcwd()

PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted

---

os.listdir()
Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<ipython-input-2-67fdccf289bf>", line 1, in <module>
    os.listdir()

PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted

---

f=open([pre-existing file],'rb')

---

However, this does NOT throw the error:

f=open('f1.txt','wb')
f.close()
f=open('f1.txt','rb')

I've already tried setting Full Disk Access permissions for Anaconda and Spyder.

Answer 1

Go to System Preference->Security and Privacy.

Now look at the following image, see Label 1

On the left side click on Full Disk Access see Label 2

Now click on bottom left lock icon and enter password to make changes, see Label 3

Now click on + sign button, see Label 4

Browse the terminal app from Application -> Utilities

Now Terminal added with permission.

Done.

Answer 2

If you encounter this issue with Workflows / Automator scripts like I did, the following might help:

1. Open System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy
2. Click the lock in the bottom left and enter your password to allow changes
3. Under 'Full Disk Access' click the '+' sign
4. Add Finder (to quickly find it, press CMD + Shift + G and enter /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app)

This should make all workflows work (again)!

Answer 3

Solved:

What I did I create a new folder I call it 'dev' in my user folder and moved all my files & folders in there, then the permission error disappeared.

Hope this will help you as well.

Answer 4

I had the same problem and went to the System Preferences and under Security and Privacy > Developer Tools tab, added the Anaconda program under "Allow Apps below to run software locally...." and restarted the anaconda program and it worked.

EDIT: Something else i observed since i tried out this solution was that it only works when i run spyder from the terminal as a bash command.