Error: "TurboTax cannot be updated if it is running on the CD or is installed in a folder that you do not have the privileges to change" and related errors (Mac)
Updated: 11/16/2012
Article ID: SLN12124
One of these messages appear on a Macintosh computer when updating or downloading TurboTax State:
- Product updating cannot occur if you are running any part of TurboTax from a locked portion of your drive or from the CD-ROM
- TurboTax cannot be updated if it is running on the CD or is installed in a folder that you do not have the privileges to change. Please log into your computer as the user that originally installed TurboTax or copy TurboTax into your home directory.
- Error Downloading Your TurboTax State Product. The state product for TurboTax could not be downloaded. Please try again later.
Possible Causes
These and similar errors will occur if one of the following are true:
- You are running TurboTax directly from the CD (as though it were a music CD)
- The user is signed in with a different login than what was initially used to install TurboTax.
Solutions
Although TurboTax may already be properly installed in the Applications folder, it's very easy to inadvertently run it from the CD, causing the errors described above.
To ensure that you are running TurboTax from the Applications folder:
- Navigate to and activate the Finder by holding down the Command (Apple) key while clicking the Tab key.
- In the Finder, choose Applications from the Go menu.
- In the Applications folder, open the TurboTax 20XX folder by double-clicking it. (XX represents the 2-digit tax year.)
- Click the TurboTax "checkmark" icon to open the program, and then try updating or downloading again.
If the problem persists, make sure that the updates and downloads are performed under the same user login that was used when TurboTax was installed.
