Managing pre-Win10 File ‘Permissions’ Issues

Older Windows Secrets/LangaList columns are in the process of being moved to their new home at AskWoody.com, and may not yet be publicly available.

In the interim, I’m reprinting selected columns here to help ensure readers can find and access information I’m referencing in new columns.

The column below was originally published in the May 21, 2015 WindowsSecrets. It supplements a new column focused on Win10 file permission issues; scheduled for the Feb. 4, 2019 AskWoody Plus Newsletter.

The original, verbatim, un-updated copy from 2015 follows:

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Windows 8 upgrade error locks user’s files

By Fred Langa on May 21, 2015 in LangaList Plus

When Windows’ file-and-folder permissions go awry, you might be unable to access your own data! But you can regain control with a few easy steps.

This article discusses two quick workarounds, plus methods to help permanently resolve even difficult permissions problems.

An unpleasant surprise follows a Win8 upgrade

Reader Marsha Casey’s move from Win7 to Win8 seemed to go well — but then came the shocking discovery that she was locked out of her external drive.

• “I’ve recently encountered a problem for which I can’t seem to find help. I copied files from a Win7 laptop to my external hard drive [to prepare for an upgrade to Windows 8]. When I finished installing Win8, I tried to copy those files back — but then got a message that I don’t have correct permissions. I ran a Kaspersky full scan on that drive, and it found no problems. The permissions on those files are set to Full Control for Everyone, System, Admins, and me. I’m at a loss as to what else I can do to get my files. Any ideas you can give me would be very much appreciated.”

Wow, what a frustrating problem! Your files are right there — but you can’t access them.

As you surmise, this is almost certainly due to mangled permissions settings. And you did exactly the right thing by manually checking the permissions. Typically, you’d do so by right-clicking the target files or folders, selecting Properties/Security, and then reviewing the permissions via the Edit and/or Advanced buttons. There, you can make any necessary adjustments to permissions for users and groups.

In most cases, those steps work fine, and all users should be able to read, write, change, or delete the selected files/subfolders.

But that didn’t work for you, so you’ll have to dig a little deeper.

Windows’ permissions can be very complex. For example, there are six basic permission types: Read, Write, Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, Modify, and Full Control. In addition, there are over a dozen special and custom permission variations.

Permissions can be applied globally or per user, and they act differently depending on how a user is signed in (i.e., administrator, standard user, guest, or child).

Permissions also vary according to how the separate (but related) sharing settings are configured — and whether the attempted access is local or remote.

Moreover, Windows 8 adds a new way to handle file and folder ownership, which can cause problems if your Win8 username is different from what was used with Win 7 or Vista — as is often the case. Win8 might see your older files as being “owned” by someone other than you!

And that’s just for the standard explicit permissions. The less obvious inherited permissions add even more complexity. For example, a subfolder normally inherits the permissions of its parent folder(s). When a folder tree is many levels deep and you try to manually adjust one or more folders somewhere in the folder tree, the inheritance permission chain can get royally tangled.

That’s a daunting list of things that can go wrong. Rather than trying to nit-pick individual settings, I’ve found that the shortest way to untangle permissions messes is usually to remove all access restrictions for all users. I then go back and adjust the ownership and inheritance settings, as needed.

That practice should help you regain access to all your files or folders.

But before diving into the permanent fixes, I suggest you try two quick and easy workarounds. Although neither will correct the root problem or problems, they might at least let you regain access to your locked files right away.

Quick fix 1: Try this. Repeat your attempts to copy your files, but verify that you’re truly copying and not trying to move (or cut-and-paste) the files. I know that sounds a little silly, but here’s the thing: a simple copy-and-paste operation requires the relatively relaxed Read access permission. In contrast, a move or cut-and-paste requires both Read and Modify permissions. A simple Read operation might succeed where a Read/Modify will fail.

Quick fix 2: If a plain-vanilla copy doesn’t work, exit Windows and boot your PC with a self-contained DVD/CD/Flash-based “live” Linux distribution or rescue disc of your choice. A Linux setup might “see” your files differently and allow you to copy them from the external drive to your main hard drive or other location — bypassing Windows-based restrictions. (Need a good Linux live distro? There are many, and most are free. See, for example, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Pendrivelinux, and so forth. The LiveCD List also lists many, many other alternatives.)

Whether or not these workarounds let you copy your files, you’ll eventually want to permanently resolve the permissions problems. The following methods focus on Win8 (because that’s what Marsha is using), but the steps and techniques are similar for Win7 and Vista.

These instructions assume you’re signed in to an account with administrator privileges. I’ll start with the simplest method: rebuilding the Sharing settings.

• Right-click a problematic folder and select Properties/Sharing. Click the Share button; the File Sharing dialog box will open.
• Look at the Name listings. If the Everyone group is shown, open its pull-down menu under Permission Leveland select Remove, as shown in Figure 1. The Everyone group should disappear from the Name listings.Figure 1.

• When the Name field shows no listing for Everyone, re-create it by entering “everyone” into the text box and clicking Add (Figure 2).

• Click the newly created Everyone listing, open the pull-down menu under Permission Level, and select Read/Write.
• Click the Share button at the bottom of the dialog box and then click Done in the File Share dialog box. You’ll be returned to Properties.

Try to access your files. If you’re still having trouble, try adjusting the advanced sharing options.

• Return to Properties/Sharing and click the Advanced Sharing button.
• In the Advanced Sharing dialog box, tick (enable) the Share this folder box at the top and then click the Permissions button (Figure 3).

• If Everyone isn’t shown in the Permissions dialog box, click Add — the Select Users or Groups settings box will open. Type “Everyone” into the space labeled “Enter the object names to select” and then click OK. You’ll be returned to Permissions.
• Now select Everyone and tick the Allow boxes for Full Control, Change, and Read (Figure 4).

• Click the OK buttons until you’ve exited all the Properties dialog boxes.

Try accessing your files now.

If you still can’t get at your files, the problem might be with the folder’s inheritance and/or ownership settings. Here’s how to adjust them.

• Navigate to the topmost folder of the drive where your inaccessible files reside (in Marsha’s case, the external drive’s topmost folder would be its mapped drive letter — D:, E:, F:, etc.). Right-click and select Properties/Sharing. Adjust the folder’s basic Sharing permissions, as described above. Try accessing your files again.
• If access is still blocked, right-click and select the topmost folder’s Properties/Sharing tab and adjust the Advanced Sharing settings, as described earlier.
• If your files remain inaccessible, right-click and select the topmost folder’s Properties/Security tab. Click the Advanced button. Figure 5 illustrates the following steps.
• Near the top of Advanced Security Settings dialog box, check who’s listed as the folder’s Owner. If your current, Win8 username is not shown, click the Change link to the right and follow the on-screen steps to enter your Win8 username and give it ownership of the target folder and its subfolders.
• Next, ensure that inheritance is enabled. If you see an “Enable inheritance” button in the lower-left corner of Advanced Security Settings, click it. (Don’t click the button if it says, “Disable inheritance.”)
• If the check box for “Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object” is empty, tick it to enable this option, as shown in Figure 5.

It’s hard to imagine bad permission settings surviving those settings changes, but if you still can’t fully access your files, it’s time to bring out the big guns.

To start, enable Windows’ hidden Administrator account, as described in the May 14 Top Story, “Activate Windows’ hidden, master admin account.” Sign out of your normal user account and into the newly revealed Admin account, then repeat the preceding steps. Manually set the basic permissions (as Marsha originally did) and then, in sequence, adjust the Sharing, Advanced Sharing, Owner, and Inheritance settings. Test your file access after each step.

And if even that doesn’t work, try downloading and running SubInACL from the Admin account; it’s a free Microsoft Resource Kit tool designed to let admins quickly modify NTFS file and folder attributes — permissions, ownership, and domain. A Microsoft Answers thread contains a 10-step how-to on downloading and using the app to reset file/folder permissions to defaults. (Note: This is an older tool that’s not specifically designed for Win8. But if you’ve tried everything else and still can’t access your files, it’s worth a try. Make sure you restrict the use of SubInACL to modifying only the permissions of the malfunctioning folders.)

If that doesn’t work, well — you’re running out of options. But you can try the advanced (and, frankly, difficult) steps outlined in Microsoft Support article 313222, “How do I restore security settings to a known working state?”

But I don’t think it’ll come to that. Almost surely, one of the simpler options will get your files unlocked and open for full, normal access. Good luck!

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