[BUG] On mac, desktop app is silently denied File Provider (Dropbox/OneDrive/Google Drive) access instead of prompting

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

When trying to add a dropbox folder as the working location in the desktop claude app, in 'Code' mode, it fails with a permission error, and does not prompt for permission.

What Should Happen?

I should be able to work on a directory within a dropbox folder (or other file provider)

Error Messages/Logs

I got claude to dig in to this:


Found the answer, and it's a genuine gap in the app itself: the Claude desktop app never prompts because it doesn't declare the one permission string macOS requires before it's allowed to ask.

Here's how the pieces fit together. On macOS, an app can only trigger a privacy prompt for a protected location if its Info.plist contains the matching "usage description" string — no string, no prompt, just a silent "Operation not permitted." The Claude app declares strings for the Desktop folder, the Documents folder, and Downloads, which is why those prompts work. But Dropbox (like OneDrive and Google Drive) now lives under ~/Library/CloudStorage as a File Provider domain, and access to those requires a separate declaration — NSFileProviderDomainUsageDescription — which is missing from the app's plist. So when a session inside the Claude app touches your Dropbox folder, macOS denies it outright instead of asking you, and no toggle for it ever appears under Files and Folders (you can't add one manually there, unlike Full Disk Access).

So it's not that you declined a prompt or misconfigured something — the app currently can't request scoped Dropbox access at all.

Your options that don't involve Full Disk Access:

Run Claude Code from Terminal or iTerm instead for Dropbox work. For CLI processes, macOS attributes the access to the terminal app, and Apple's Terminal does carry the right declarations — the first ls into the folder pops "Terminal would like to access files in Dropbox," and approving it grants access to just Dropbox, nothing else. That's the scoped permission you were expecting.
Work on copies — move the files you need out of Dropbox into your home folder via Finder, then sync back.
It's worth filing this as a feature request at [github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues) — "desktop app is silently denied File Provider (Dropbox/OneDrive/Google Drive) access instead of prompting" is exactly the kind of thing they'd want to know about, and the fix on their end is a one-line plist addition.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start a new 'code' session..
2. From the 'working directory' button, select a folder within dropbox.
3. The file navigator dialog will allow you to select a dropbox folder without a problem
4. Ask any prompt: A permissions error occurs.

Claude Model

Other

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

1.18286.0 (Claude for Mac)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

This is in the claude app itself, not claude running within a terminal.
The terminal app works fine.