Linux xmp sidecar permissions issues when changing time/date

having some permissions issues related to editing/writing exif data to xmp sidecars. my immich user owns the entire library directory but for some reason returns and error in logs while opening the file (to change time/date). Is there a different user that perhaps executes the open/write? such as the root user? that's my hypothesis as my root user doesn't have rwx permission to the library folder.