What to Do When You Do Not Have Permission to Access a Folder on PC?

There might be a large volume of important data on your PC that you might need to access anytime. Since you own the folder, you should ideally be able to open it whenever needed. But, that doesn’t always seem to be the case. If you’re seeing the annoying “You do not have permission to access this folder” message, you’re not alone. It is a more commonly faced issue than you might believe.

You might prefer to get rid of this issue as soon as possible. Looking for a quick and simple solution? Fortunately, there are some tried and tested methods that you can apply by yourself. So, read on to know how to get through this solution without much hassle.

You Do Not Have Permission to Access A Folder: 5 Simple Ways to Recover the Folder

It might be very confusing to you when you can’t access your folder. Moreover, like other computer problems, this one too has various possible causes. So, you would need to make some effort to find the cause. 

Once you do that, you won’t have any more trouble fixing the issue. There are simple solutions for each of them. If you prefer, you can just apply all the methods rather than looking for a cause first.

Use an Admin Account

Before looking for and applying various solutions, you need to make sure you’re using the device as admin. Is it necessary to do so? Yes, you can’t fix the issue without it. After all, the user account gives you quite a limited authority. As a result, you don’t get permission to make the kind of changes required to fix this issue.

Moreover, some data is always inaccessible to a user account. So, that could have something to do with the problem you’re facing. Therefore, you need to switch to the admin account first.

Switching to Admin Account

Are you using a computer that you don’t own, such as an office PC? In that case, you have to ask the owner to grant admin rights. If you are the owner, you can simply go to the Account Settings on your device.

 Now, if you’ve got only a user account, you can change its status to admin. Find the option to switch the account type and set it as Administrator. Once you do this, you’re now ready to solve the issue of inaccessible folders.

• Disk Permission Denied

The folders that you’re unable to access are located in one of the disk drives. Suppose it’s in the C-drive, now, if you can’t access a particular folder, maybe your account can’t access that drive. You can check if that’s the case by trying to access the other folders and files located there. 

Are some of them displaying the same message to you? In that case, you’re not allowed to fully access the drive, which means you need to change the permissions. This would resolve the “you do not have permission to access” message.

You can do it from File Explorer in any Windows version, even though here we’re discussing the latest one. Right-click the one you want to access and select its properties. This will bring up a page with various tabs. In this case, you have to choose Security and look for the Advanced option in it. There, you can find the permissions granted to various accounts.

Does the admin have Full Control? If there is none, that explains why you’re unable to access a certain folder. To fix this, you need admin rights that let you access every file in the system.

• The Antivirus Interferes with Accessing the File

The antivirus that you use might be best at protecting your device from threats. However, it’s not that rare for it to get too enthusiastic about doing that. In case you haven’t experienced it earlier, it can identify certain files as system threats and puts them on the blacklist. As a result, you’re unable to access those files.

You must consider this cause as well while looking for a solution. How do you solve the “you do not have permission to access” issue if the antivirus is causing it? It’s quite simple, you need to open the application and remove the blacklisted files. 

In some programs, there is an option to exclude certain files from the blacklist. If the one you’re using has this option, use it for the files that it previously blocked. What if it doesn’t have such an option? In that case, you need to disable the program. Also, you might want to consider using a different one.

• Your Device Faced a System Error or Virus Attack

If you’re unable to access a certain folder, maybe it has got corrupted. Now, that could mainly be caused by some system error or malware. If that’s the case, you have surely lost the data that you’re trying to access. 

How do you proceed in such a situation? There is a way you can get it back, and for that, you need to use a data recovery tool or approach a professional. However, you must take this step with caution since you might end up only worsening the situation. 

Therefore, you must go for only the most trusted data recovery tools or services that you can find. There’s no lack of such options if you’re looking for one.

• You’re not the Owner or Its Ownership has Changed

Using a computer that you don’t own? That means you are operating it with a user account. Now, in such a situation, the administrator can change the ownership of various files and folders in the device. Is there a way you can make yourself the user again? With a user account, you can’t. So, you have to ask the admin to allow you to access the file.

The above-mentioned case may not apply to you. So if you’re using your device, you must have changed the folder’s ownership unknowingly. As mentioned, you can change it back only with admin rights. Provided that you have it, navigate to the advanced security settings to perform this task. Look for the Advanced option and select it to access ownership options, and make yourself the owner.

• The Folder is Encrypted

For the security of the folder, the owner might have encrypted it. You can check that in the Advanced tab of its General properties. If it is indeed encrypted, then you need to ask the owner to decrypt it.

Conclusion….

If you do not have permission to access a folder, you must try the above-mentioned solutions. They should help you considerably in getting through this situation. As mentioned, you can also consider getting reliable professional help.