This should be marked as Correct Answer (really)! 

I cloned the project to E:/ drive and struggled with the error during the past few days.

I think Adapt Authoring documentation for installing (https://github.com/adaptlearning/adapt_authoring/wiki/Developer's-Install#2-clone-the-adapt_authoring-project) should be updated to include this so simple yet significant step.

Are you aware of a similar recommended install location for macOS?

Thanks for your post, @Cameron!