April 8, 2026

In the Rumpus 'Administrator Advisory' box, you may sometimes see a warning message that reads "Rumpus is unable to read and write files." Let's take a look at why this warning is displayed and what, if anything, you should do about it.

The Test

About once an hour, the Rumpus daemon performs a series of diagnostic tests to watch for common problems. One of these tests confirms that the daemon can create, save, and load files in the defined FTP Root Folder. The test itself is simple, Rumpus creates a test file, writes some data to the file, closes it and then loads the file and confirms the contents. When the test completes, the test file is automatically deleted.

If the data read during the test doesn't exist or isn't correct, an Administrator Advisory message is generated stating that Rumpus is unable to read and write files.

Why Am I Seeing This Message?

There are a number of reasons the write/read test may fail, but they all involve access problems in the FTP Root Folder. So the first thing to confirm is that the FTP Root Folder, which is defined on the General Settings window, Basics tab, is set correctly. The "Root Folder" path should be a full path to a folder that exists and is accessible to the Rumpus daemon. If you aren't sure, use the "Choose Folder" button next to the Root Folder field to select a valid path to the default location of your Rumpus content.

Assuming the FTP Root Folder is set correctly, the warning message means that Rumpus doesn't have read/write access in that folder. If the Root Folder path leads to a network share or remotely mounted volume, there is probably a problem with access permissions on that volume. How you resolve access issues on the remote share will depend on the type of device. Check with the server administrator and ensure the the Rumpus daemon (running as "root" on a macOS server or "SYSTEM" on a Windows server) has the needed read/write/create permission.

If the Rumpus server is running on macOS, the problem may also be that Full Disk Access needs to be enabled for the Rumpus daemon. In this case, open the "Full Disk Access Setup" tool accessible from the Help menu in Rumpus.

Can I Ignore The Warning?

The 'Unable to read and write files' message doesn't cause any change in Rumpus services or how Rumpus processes connections. It is only a warning, and doesn't necessarily indicate a serious problem. For example, if your user accounts all have Home Folders set to paths that can be read and written to, Rumpus doesn't necessarily need read/write access in the FTP Root Folder. While I definitely recommend setting a Root Folder that is accessible and thoughtfully selected, it isn't strictly required. In this case, you can simply ignore the warning.

As always, if you are seeing this message and clients are having problems uploading and/or downloading content, contact Maxum technical support at support@maxum.com.