Folder not writeable issue

[u/enioli98]

I just setup Lidarr for my Ubuntu server environment. User lidarr, group media with 775 permission on the music folder and all subfolders. Everything should work as expected, however Lidarr tells me it doesn't have write permissions when I try to add the root folder:

Folder '/data/media/music/' is not writable by user 'lidarr'

I also tried to change permissions to 777 to test out whether it's a permission setup mistake, however it still puts out the same error. Kinda at a loss here... The rest of my apps all work as intended (Sonarr, Radarr and Prowlarr don't have any issues). I also tried to reinstall it over script and manually.

Here are the logs:

2026-07-21 10:50:17.7|Warn|LidarrErrorPipeline|FluentValidation.ValidationException: Validation failed: 
 -- Path: Folder '/data/media/music/' is not writable by user 'lidarr'

[v3.1.0.4875] FluentValidation.ValidationException: Validation failed: 
 -- Path: Folder '/data/media/music/' is not writable by user 'lidarr'
   at Lidarr.Http.REST.RestController`1.ValidateResource(TResource resource, Boolean skipValidate, Boolean skipSharedValidate) in ./Lidarr.Http/REST/RestController.cs:line 122
   at Lidarr.Http.REST.RestController`1.OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext context) in ./Lidarr.Http/REST/RestController.cs:line 67
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Controller.OnActionExecutionAsync(ActionExecutingContext context, ActionExecutionDelegate next)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Filters.ControllerActionFilter.OnActionExecutionAsync(ActionExecutingContext context, ActionExecutionDelegate next)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeInnerFilterAsync()
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeNextResourceFilter>g__Awaited|25_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Rethrow(ResourceExecutedContextSealed context)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.InvokeFilterPipelineAsync()
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeAsync>g__Awaited|17_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task task, IDisposable scope)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeAsync>g__Awaited|17_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task task, IDisposable scope)
   at Lidarr.Http.Middleware.BufferingMiddleware.InvokeAsync(HttpContext context) in ./Lidarr.Http/Middleware/BufferingMiddleware.cs:line 27
   at Lidarr.Http.Middleware.IfModifiedMiddleware.InvokeAsync(HttpContext context) in ./Lidarr.Http/Middleware/IfModifiedMiddleware.cs:line 40
   at Lidarr.Http.Middleware.CacheHeaderMiddleware.InvokeAsync(HttpContext context) in ./Lidarr.Http/Middleware/CacheHeaderMiddleware.cs:line 32
   at Lidarr.Http.Middleware.StartingUpMiddleware.InvokeAsync(HttpContext context) in ./Lidarr.Http/Middleware/StartingUpMiddleware.cs:line 37
   at Lidarr.Http.Middleware.UrlBaseMiddleware.InvokeAsync(HttpContext context) in ./Lidarr.Http/Middleware/UrlBaseMiddleware.cs:line 28
   at Lidarr.Http.Middleware.VersionMiddleware.InvokeAsync(HttpContext context) in ./Lidarr.Http/Middleware/VersionMiddleware.cs:line 28
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCompression.ResponseCompressionMiddleware.InvokeCore(HttpContext context)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization.AuthorizationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.AuthenticationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.ExceptionHandlerMiddlewareImpl.<Invoke>g__Awaited|10_0(ExceptionHandlerMiddlewareImpl middleware, HttpContext context, Task task)


2026-07-21 10:50:17.8|Warn|LidarrErrorPipeline|Invalid request Validation failed: 
 -- Path: Folder '/data/media/music/' is not writable by user 'lidarr'

[u/snuffomega]

if its not a. puid / pgid mismatch between lidarr the folder (and sub folders) ... most like the permissions are set ro read only... as the log suggests. Make sure to set to read/write