Get rid of read only
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Thread: Get rid of read only

  1. #1
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    Get rid of read only

    Inexplicably, entire folders full of files have become read only. After unchecking that box in the Properties, I get a message that I need Admin privs (and I am the Admin) but after Applying the change, the files are back to Read Only.

    It seems that a lot of people are having the problem but I haven't found the cause or the solution.

    What must be done?

    Thanks - rev

  2. #2
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    What folders are you talking about? I suspect you're trying to access old XP style folders. The naming convention changed in Vista and has continued all the way up through Win10. The legacy XP style folders are just junction points, not actual folders. Kind of like shortcuts.

    https://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm

  3. #3
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    No, this machine was Win 7 Ult from the beginning and I've been working on the files for months without the slightest problem. Then, all of a sudden, files are read only. I have no idea how they became that way and I found dozens of posts by people having the same trouble on various Windows versions.

    The usual procedure to remove that attribute doesn't work. It appears to work until you try to save the file again, then it's back to read only. I found a workaround which is to save the file to a different format, a .docx to a .doc, for example, and then work with the .doc. When finished, save it back to .docx and all will be well but there might be a large number of files involved so while that method does work, it's not ideal.

  4. #4
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    Hmm, ok. You mean that the files are read-only, not the folder itself?

    What did you try so far? A quick google brought this up:
    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...9-0d23b4196f64
    https://superuser.com/questions/4208...s-in-windows-7

    Did you do any antivirus/antimalware scans?

  5. #5
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    I believe the read only attribute applies only to files not folders but either way, I did nothing to cause this.

    I have not tried the 46 things that didn't work for anyone else. Just Properties, remove attrib, as Admin - which doesn't work.

    I also tried it with an elevated command prompt but I get 'parameter not correct' (the folder is not on the C:\ drive)

  6. #6
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    46 things?

    What is the folder path if it's not the C:\ drive? Can you give us more to go on?

    Did you take ownership of the files first?
    https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...menu-in-vista/

  7. #7
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    Take Ownership is working for me - thanks a lot!

  8. #8
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    Today, Take Ownership no longer works!

  9. #9
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    Bizarre. Did you do AV/Antimalware scans?

    You still didn't give us much else to go on.

  10. #10
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    >Bizarre. Did you do AV/Antimalware scans?
    No.

    >You still didn't give us much else to go on.
    I swear there's nothing to go on. I was working on those files the day before and without virus scanning or new installations of any kind, the whole folder (and others) suddenly became read only. I was only slightly reassured to learn that it's happening to a lot of people but all the obvious solutions don't work.

    Take Ownership was rocking for me yesterday, except I couldn't find a batch method. No biggy, right click and take it from the Context menu. It didn't take me that long but today I'm back where I started and TO isn't working.

    The only thing that is working for me is to save a .docx as a doc, delete the docx and resave the doc as a docx. The result is a read/write file in the latest format - but it's a drag, and I have a lot of files.

  11. #11
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    You said it's not in C:\, so where are the files?

    You said you got a 'parameter not correct' error for attrib, but you didn't post the command you ran.

  12. #12
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    You could also use a utility like BulkFileChanger
    http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/bulk_file_changer.html

  13. #13
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    Here's what I ran but after the error I didn't persevere because this method hadn't worked for other people experiencing the same problem.
    ATTRIB -R D:\Creative Projects\Cross Examination\Docs /S /D

  14. #14
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    If you have spaces in the path, you must put them in quotes. Also you ran the command for the folder, not the files in the folder.

    Try this instead:
    ATTRIB -R "D:\Creative Projects\Cross Examination\Docs\*.*" /S /D

    That's what I meant by giving us something to go on. We can't help you with syntax errors if you don't tell us exactly what you did.

  15. #15
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    I've already fixed them all by saving to a different format but I'll keep that command for tomorrow because I don't think I've seen the end of this and I never found out how it happened. Thanks.

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