there are no writable directories to create the default group for the new license

[diana meyer]

I experienced this same error against a postgres 9.6 database. I replaced the pre-packaged postgres driver in the lib directory with a newer version, stopped/restarted jira and that worked. 

[GeraSimVer]

Такой же способ подошел и для меня! Использую Postgres 9.4

[Patrick Poh]

Graham/Michael, I have run into the same issue as you (same scenario with two separate servers) - did you ever locate what folder had to change? on which server, JIRA or database?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Again, it's not a "folder" error.  Your system is unable to write to your user directory (list of users, not file directory)

[Matt Simoneau]

How do you turn the internal directory back on when you can't get through the setup? What file do you need to edit to remedy this?

[Michael Blake]

Our database server is separate from our application server.  Our application server has full write permissions for the JIRA userid.  Do we need to have an open directory on the database server? also what directory needs to be available?  (btw, I work with graham, the user who asked the question in the first place)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's not the database, it's the user directory inside the application.  Admin -> User directories.  The error message suggests that the system has been hooked up to LDAP or some other directory in a read-only mode, and the internal directory switched off.  It needs at least one directory to be read/write so it can add groups.

[Graham Duerden]

Sorry, for the lack of context, fat finger syndrome... I hit this error during the installation wizard once I've added the licence key and I'm trying to save the admin account.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Did you select the internal directory for users when setting it up?  (If it didn't ask you, then the answer is "yes" because it'll do it automatically)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You need at least one active writeable user directory to hold the groups in.  The internal directory should be ok for this, but is it showing as disabled  or removed?