Fixing the Ubuntu Update Permission Error

Recently I ran into a permission problem on Ubuntu. It shows up when downloading stuff like flash or mscorefronts. I’d been ignoring it all this time, but today I decided ignoring it isn’t great.

Files can’t be accessed by user ‘_apt’, and the permission can’t be dropped for downloading

Advertisement

The fix is simple…

sudo chown -R _apt:root /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/

And that’s it. While you’re at it, you can also delete the partially downloaded files.

sudo rm /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/*.FAILED

Source: https://www.mobibrw.com/2017/8418