I use emacs on servers with unlimited access (root) but i also use it at work where’s limited access and where I can only modify files (such as apache configuration files files) but not create new ones. And here is where emacs starts complaining.
“Access denied saving backup”. “Cannot auto-save”.
The solution: create a file called .emacs in your home directory with the following content:
;; disable backup
(setq backup-inhibited t)
;; disable auto save
(setq auto-save-default nil)
You’re done. Emacs doesn’t complain anymore.