Uh, the whole issue I'm having is that Preview can no longer crop, cut or save changes to jpg files after updating to Sonoma. Some jpg files can be edited. Some can't. I opened these very same files on my older iMac and could edit the jpg files normally. Please note that I am using an M1 iMac. All updates are installed and all, for my identity, sharing and permissions on the files are set to "Read & Write." Sharing and permissions for Everyone are set to No Access. This setting can not be changed.
It's some sort of bug that was just introduced. Hopefully, there is a fix for it and I don't have to wait for an update.