URI has an authority component - Error

I get the "URI has an authority component" error
The stack trace is ...
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: URI has an authority component
at java.io.File.<init>(File.java:368)

In the properties file, I found
fileService.fileStoreLocation=file://Users/me/rest_of_path

I changed the above setting to (i.e., removed the extra slash):
fileService.fileStoreLocation=file:/Users/me/rest_of_path

This change fixed the error.