# Exiting: Could not start registrar: Error loading state: open /filebeat/data/registry: permission denied
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-open-filebeat-data-registry-permission-denied/153349
**Category:** Beats
**Tags:** filebeat
**Created:** [October 22, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-open-filebeat-data-registry-permission-denied/153349 "2018-10-22T08:43:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sebastiaanspeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sebastiaanspeck)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-open-filebeat-data-registry-permission-denied/153349/1 "2018-10-22T08:43:03Z")
When running `/filebeat --setup -e` It exits with the next error:
```
2018-10-22T10:19:29.306+0200 ERROR instance/beat.go:743 Exiting: Could not start registrar: Error
loading state: open /filebeat/data/registry: permission denied
Exiting: Could not start registrar: Error loading state: open /filebeat/data/registry: permission denied
```
I am running filebeat 6.4.2-darwin-x86\_64 on MacOS Mojave
---
### Author:  [@steffens](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/steffens)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-open-filebeat-data-registry-permission-denied/153349/2 "2018-10-22T14:57:40Z")
The registry file must belong to the filebeat user. The /filebeat/data filter is owned by filebeat.
Which user do you use to run filebeat?
Please share the output of `$ ls -la /filebeat/data` (run in Terminal).
---
### Author:  [@sebastiaanspeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sebastiaanspeck)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2018, 8:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-open-filebeat-data-registry-permission-denied/153349/3 "2018-10-24T08:19:07Z")
```
$ ls -la data
total 16
drwxr-x--- 4 root staff 128 Oct 24 09:54 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 16 sebastiaanspeck staff 512 Oct 24 09:54 ..
-rw------- 1 root staff 48 Oct 24 09:23 meta.json
-rw------- 1 root staff 3 Oct 24 09:54 registry
```
---
### Author:  [@steffens](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/steffens)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-open-filebeat-data-registry-permission-denied/153349/4 "2018-10-24T18:45:00Z")
The files are owned by root, but the directory is owned by sebastiaanspeck. When running `filebeat setup` with your user, you can not access the files. Fix users of directory and files to one user only. Use 'sudo' if you want to run filebeat as another user.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-open-filebeat-data-registry-permission-denied/153349/5 "2018-11-21T18:45:04Z")
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