Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

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ChrisGreaves
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Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

This question is associated with my "Gardeners Guide" thread, but as it is early days i thought to separate the question from the general solutions.

I open a document or spreadsheet, make changes, then Close saving changes and ultimately receive the message:-
Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’
20210617_05.png
This has occurred on every document on my VeraCrypt drive T: since yesterday
20210617_06.png
I know a little about right-click and Properties; also the ATTRIB command, but right now I am more curious about my status as Administrator.
20210617_04.png
When I installed yesterday I do not recall being asked if I wanted to be an administrator, but since then, and right now, I appear as Chris075 to have administrator privileges.

I had a quick look at general solutions on the web, but they seem all to be related to un-setting R-O on a few folders or files. I have a feeling that my current problem is a more general setting, perhaps related to my status as Chris075===Administrator.

I would appreciate any hints about suitable things to try before I get (us all) bogged down into the mire again, again. That is, I am bravely resisting the impulse to click madly in all directions.

Thanks
Chris
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 11:24
Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’
I will add that I seem to have the same 'Administrator' problem when I try to delete a file from within Everything.exe ...
20210617_07.png
There is (currently) no problem when I save into the folder Documents ("C:\Users\Chris075\Documents")
[later]
20210617_08.png
Oddly enough, Audacity (MP3 editor) seems to have no problem in exporting a track to a different folder on drive T:.

Thanks
Chris
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StuartR
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Re: Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by StuartR »

Is your account the owner of these folders?

It seems likely that you created a new user when you reinstalled, and that the folders are now owned by a now non-existant user. You can fix this by seizing ownership of the complete folder tree.
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

StuartR wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 13:04
Is your account the owner of these folders?
Hi Stuart.
Good Point!

To my feeble mind ***I*** am the owner of the encrypted data on Drive T:, folder T:\ and all subfolders.
Until Sunday my username was 'Chris074', whereas today my username is 'Chris075', so from Win10's point of view, I am a different person.
I used How to take ownership and followed it through, rebooted, and behold And Lo! can now save updated documents where they belong.
Thank You. :thankyou:
20210617_09.png
I am familiar with this Properties screen; to me it appears that every man and his dog has full access to the lot, except for 'Special Permissions' at the foot of the list. To me this screen suggests that Administrators (I am one of them) and Users (I am one of them, too!) have full access to (and full control of) the files/folders.
20210617_10.png
But when I follow these (to me) novel steps, everything seems to work, after the reboot. That suggests to me that before I took this step, "Users" did not include me-as-Chris075.
I find this confusing.
It seems likely that you created a new user when you reinstalled, and that the folders are now owned by a now non-existent user. You can fix this by seizing ownership of the complete folder tree.
Quite so.
Here is how/why I get turned around by Windows (and hence last week's rant). I will bet this year's zucchini crop that I have never had to do this business before. That is, last July in moving from Chris073(Win7) to Chris074(Win10), nor before that (August 2020) from Chris072(Win7) to Chris073(Win7), all the way back through the mists of time.
I am deeply suspicious that this extra step in gaining access to what I think of as MY files is the introduction of yet-another-level-of-security within Win10 - and this is my first change-of-username within Win10.

If so, what a cost is brought about via MSWindows - probably a half hour this morning struggling until resignation, saving my updated files to the Documents folder, my time and your time in this forum, and now the time to fix permissions and to reboot, and to move updated documents back to where they belong, wherever that was.

(signed) Chris Grrrrrreaves. :laugh: :rofl:
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Argus
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Re: Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by Argus »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 14:12
I am deeply suspicious that this extra step in gaining access to what I think of as MY files is the introduction of yet-another-level-of-security within Win10 - and this is my first change-of-username within Win10.
Sorry I don't have much time this afternoon, but I agree with Stuart, and was going to reply about taking ownership (sometimes it isn't straightforward to move data, files and folders, between accounts; and yes, I've seen it in for example Windows 7 and other than Windows 10).

It's not about user names; each account has a SID, security identifier; otherwise if people changed user name they would lose access to their data.
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Argus wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 14:28
Sorry I don't have much time this afternoon, ...
Argus et al., there is no need to aplogize. I am sitting in a canoe while everyone else paddles and steers!
(sometimes it isn't straightforward to move data, files and folders, between accounts; and yes, I've seen it in for example Windows 7 and other than Windows 10).
I think that I've never had to move data between accounts before (as I did this morning). I have had re-installations where I have created anew my data partition restored my data from a backup drive, but mostly I have just incremented the version number (in Sunday's case from 074 to 075) and got on with life.
... otherwise if people changed user name they would lose access to their data.
And this is a large part of my puzzled feeling: For perhaps the past fifteen years i have re-installed with a different user name, if only to preserve "last year's user data" on the data backup drive with its frozen identifier. In theory I can go back to Chris054 which might have been on my Big Beige Box and retrieve from there the browser bookmarks which were in vogue back in 2010 or thereabouts.

My experience this morning leads me to believe that if I create a new account e.g. username=Argus", then I would have to jump through hoops to let you share my laptop and data when you arrive on holiday. That is no different from me using a new alias "Chris075" as I did yesterday.

Cheers and :thankyou:
Chris
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StuartR
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Re: Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by StuartR »

As Argus said, going back to the same username would not help. The files are owned by a SID, which is a very long number. Your system maps these SIDs to usernames, but the previous system would have had completely different SID, eve if it had the same usernames.
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Cannot save : The folder is marked as ‘Read Only’ (Administrator permission)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

StuartR wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 22:37
As Argus said, going back to the same username would not help. The files are owned by a SID, which is a very long number. Your system maps these SIDs to usernames, but the previous system would have had completely different SID, eve if it had the same usernames.
Hi Stuart, and yes, I am comfortable with that explanation.
But ... that leads me away from "UserId" and into the pastures of "SID", and I think that the same argument holds:-
In all my re-installations (I see in my WhatFAQ "2015/08/24 CG 8677: Rebuilt as Dell063/Chris063 RebuildLap063.doc") I can't remember having to jump through the hoops like this.
Especially I have made backups of my data drive, but except when I have re-partitioned, have just installed Windows, installed True/VeraCrypt, and got on with life (such as it was!) :hairout:
Cheers and thanks
Chris
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