Troubleshooting “Permission Denied” Errors During PaperCut Hive Client Installation on macOS

“Help! I’m a Systems Administrator of PaperCut, and I’ve run into a permissions error when trying to set up the PaperCut Hive Client on Macos. How can we fix this?

Overview

This article explains how to resolve installation failures on macOS where the PaperCut Hive Print Client or Edge Node fails to install or start due to file permission conflicts.

This issue most commonly occurs during a reinstall or upgrade when remnants of a previous installation were not cleanly removed. In these cases, leftover service files may be owned by the system (root) instead of the logged‑in user, preventing the installer from updating them.

When Does This Happen?

This issue is most often seen when:

• · A previous installation of the PaperCut Hive Print Client or Edge Node was manually removed
• The installer was previously run using sudo, changing file ownership to root
• · An earlier install or uninstall did not complete cleanly
• · A reinstall is attempted over a broken or partial installation

Symptoms

You may notice one or more of the following:

• · The installer reports a failure, or completes but the client does not start
• · The Print Client does not appear in the macOS menu bar
• · The client does not start automatically after login
• · The installation log contains a “permission denied” error when writing a LaunchAgent file, for example:

open /Users/<username>/Library/LaunchAgents/pc-print-client-service.plist: permission denied

Cause

During installation, PaperCut Hive registers background services by writing .plist files into standard macOS service locations, such as:

• · ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ (per‑user services)
• · /Library/LaunchDaemons/ (system‑wide services)

If one of these service files already exists but is owned by the root user (superuser) instead of the logged‑in user, the installer cannot overwrite it. This results in a “permission denied” error and prevents the service from being registered or started.

Step by Step

To resolve this issue, remove the conflicting service files and clean up any leftover PaperCut Hive application data before reinstalling.

Note: These steps use the $USER variable to automatically target the currently logged‑in user**.**

1. Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities. All the following commands will be run within the terminal window.

2. Unload Any Lingering PaperCut Services

Attempt to unload per-user LaunchAgent (ignore errors if not loaded).

launchctl unload “/Users/$USER/Library/LaunchAgents/pc-print-client-service.plist” 2>/dev/null

Attempt to unload system-wide LaunchDaemon (ignore errors if not loaded)

sudo launchctl unload “/Library/LaunchDaemons/pc-edgenode-service.plist” 2>/dev/null

3. Delete Conflicting Service Files

sudo rm -f “/Users/$USER/Library/LaunchAgents/pc-print-client-service.plist”

sudo rm -f “/Library/LaunchDaemons/pc-edgenode-service.plist”

4. Remove Leftover PaperCut Hive Application Data

sudo rm -rf “/Library/PaperCut Hive”

sudo rm -rf “/Users/$USER/Library/PaperCut Hive”

Why This Works

PaperCut Hive relies on standard macOS background services (LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons) to start the Print Client and Edge Node automatically.

When these service files are accidentally created with root ownership, usually due to a previous install being run with sudo or an incomplete uninstall, macOS prevents the PaperCut installer from modifying or replacing them.

These steps:

• · Stop any partially‑registered services
• · Remove stale service files that the installer cannot overwrite
• · Delete leftover application state from previous installs

Together, this returns the system to a clean, expected state so the PaperCut Hive installer can safely recreate and register its services. Following this, you can reinstall the PaperCut Hive client.