Running ffmpeg from a windows service on same machine encounters permissions issue

Question

I had been running a Windows Service, form my machine (which has full read/write access to a network drive).

The command for ffmpeg was something like this: -i \filestore\test.avi -b 500000 -s 640x360 -ar 22050 -copyts -y -vcodec libx264 -acodec ac3 -y \filestore\mp4\test.mp4

Running it from cmd works perfectly. Running it from a windows service, from the same machine, would yield a File Not found type error. Updating to the latest ffmpeg stable changed that to "Permission denied".

I am running the service it as 'Local Account'. I was intending to run this on another server, so I need to get a grip on this!

Does running a service on your machine run as a different user to you when you choose 'Local Account'?

Answer 1

Assuming that ffmpeg running from Windows Service needs to access files on a network server, you need to be sure that the service user account has sufficient network permissions.

If both computers are in the same Windows domain, then you can run the services under a domain account and add permissions to access the network share from this account.

Alternatively, you can allow Everyone to access the network share and edit Local Security Policy to enable Network Access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users.