Archive Utility.app "Error identifying a writable temporary folder"

Solution 1:

An answer on discussions.apple.com that worked for me:

cd /var/folders
sudo rm -rf *

Solution 2:

I saw this on macOS 10.15 (19A583) Catalina when I tried to expand a ZIP file in my Downloads folder.

One way to fix or work around the problem is to give Full Disk Access to Archive Utility in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access.

Solution 3:

I managed to fix my problem by sticking in my Snow Leopard install disk and reinstalling Snow Leopard. It kept all my files and applications but seems to have fixed my permissions issues.

Solution 4:

I've just had this same problem. After poking around a bit, it turned out that something had created a root-owned directory in my temp folder, Cleanup At Startup. Changing the ownership of everything in my temp folder allowed archive utility to work as normal.

From the terminal, do:

$ sudo chown -R $USER $(dirname $(mktemp -t foo))

And try opening an archive from the finder again.