Windows 7, 32-bit: There is 1 user account in this PC, and that is my account.
What I do is, I right click to a folder and uncheck the read only option, apply, close. After when I reopen the folder's properties I see that it is restored and file is still read only.
What should I do?
49 Answers
From your question it seems this issue is on folders, and you do not mention any inability to access these files. If this is the case the below should apply to you:
Unlike the Read-only attribute for a file, the Read-only attribute for a folder is typically ignored by Windows, Windows components and accessories, and other programs. For example, you can delete, rename, and change a folder with the Read-only attribute by using Windows Explorer. The Read-only and System attributes is only used by Windows Explorer to determine whether the folder is a special folder, such as a system folder that has its view customized by Windows (for example, My Documents, Favorites, Fonts, Downloaded Program Files), or a folder that you customized by using the Customize tab of the folder's Properties dialog box. As a result, Windows Explorer does not allow you to view or change the Read-only or System attributes of folders. When a folder has the Read-Only attribute set it causes Explorer to request the Desktop.ini of that folder to see if any special folder settings need to be set. It has been seen where if a network share that has a large amount of folders set to Read-only, it can cause Explorer to take longer then what is expected to render the contents of that share while it waits on the retrieval of the Desktop.ini files. The slower the network connectivity to the share the longer this process can take to the point where Explorer may timeout waiting for the data and render nothing or appear to hang.
I have run into the issue you are describing in the past where you uncheck the box and after closing and opening properties again it is still checked. The above is what I found when looking into this issue. Source
I've spent a lot of time trying to make my folders not read only too. Even talked to my computer support staff and they were unable to resolve it. Guess what! There wasn't anything to fix.
Did Google search and found out that while files restrict changes when it's read only, folders that are read only are read only so different programs know how to treat them (it's a bit technical for me to explain more, since that's all I understand). Kyle's answer has the more technical details about it all.
But the real eye opener was this website which had pictures. Seems that even though the read only box has a little square in it - it isn't read only. Just when the box has a check mark in it, is it read only. So all this time and energy and they weren't even read only and even if they were, it's only important to the programs to know.
Hope this is the case with you and they aren't read only, so you won't have to worry. Cheers! Here's the pictures telling which are and aren't read only.
2Are you checking files or folder? Windows ignores read-only attributes for folders. If you un-check the read-only checkbox for a folder, it just appears greyed out the next time you open the folder properties. Check the "Cause" section of this KB article:
1Try using the attrib tool from the command prompt. You can type attrib /? to see usage guidelines.
Try this:
attrib -r -s c:\YourFolder /S /D
-r means remove readonly attribute -s means remove system attribute /S means process files and all subfolders /D means process folders also
2I don't know the reason why, but I recently had an issue where trying to open files in AutoCAD warned that they were read-only. Previously not an issue. The files always opened, but would not allow me to save them with the same file name. But I had not changed any attributes. But turning off the preview pane allows them to open normally without the read-only warning and I can make modifications and save them under the same file name again. Not sure why it matters, but the problem of Read-only went away when the preview pane is not selected.
2I had a similar issue yesterday, you can try this on the folders in question:
Right click your folder
Select properties
Hit the security tab
Click the Advanced button
Click the Owner tab
Click Edit
Highlight your username
Check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects"
Select OK, OKThen you can go in and check the NTFS permissions under Properties -> Security and and ensure you have full control. This should solve your files being read only.
4Here is the solution:
The problem isn't that the folder is Read Only. Rather, because your folder was created on a different
installation of Windows you no longer have NTFS security permissions to access (read) the folder.
Correct this by following these steps to take ownership and then grant yourself full access to the folder.
1.Right-click the folder > Properties
2.Security tab > Advanced
3.Click Change to the right of Owner
4.Enter Users (user name you used when installing Windows) into box and click check names then OK
5.Enable the checkbox Replace owner on sub-containers and objects then click Apply
That should fix it at this point item 5, however see below if problem continues:
6.If prompted that You do not have permissions to read... click Yes
7.Completely close out of the Advanced Security Settings dialog
8.Right-click the folder > Properties
9.Security tab > Edit...
10.Add...
11.Enter Users into box and click OK
12.Enable the Full Control checkbox then click OK
1I had the same issue and now I was messing around and ended up figuring out what my problem was.
- Go into the folder properties
- Click on advanced on the general tab
- Uncheck all options
- Then take off the read only attribute and apply
Hope it helps.
1I found a solution - make sure the preview button is off in the file's folder. The preview button is in the top right corner of the file.
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