Question "Access is Denied" error when trying to move folders ?

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graveller39

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Jun 30, 2019
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I often get an "Access is Denied" error when trying to move a folder from one location to another on the same drive. I use File Explorer and the cut & paste options, but more than half the time, I'm unable to do so. I can rename, delete, and copy the same folder or move the contents of the folder, but I keep getting the error message when I try to move the folder to a different directory.

I've tried taking ownership and rebooting and that seems to work with most, but not all, of the folders in question. But if I rename the folder and then try to move it, I get the error again.

I'm the only user on this computer and have only one User Account. All the folders are on a separate data drive, not the C drive. None of the folders have system files - its all data.

Does anyone know what's causing this and what I might do to get around it? Taking ownership and rebooting is more than a bit tedious.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Solution
USAFRet
graveller39 said:
I suppose I can copy & paste - it just seems necessary to copy & paste as cut & paste doesn't actually move the data. Is there an advantage to copy & paste?

The issue does seem to be related to permissions, because taking ownership with a reboot usually works - but why would I not already have permission for a folder created with my own account?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Copy/Paste is the preferred method.
Cut/Paste or Move can have issues if the process fails in the middle.
With a large bunch of files, you never really know what got copied over.
This is even worse with a bunch of subfolders.

Copy, verify it all exists at the target, then delete the source.
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The folders are typically music folders, not sure if its happened with other types.

I have the Libraries feature disabled, so they have never been located in or relocated from a library.
 
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Copy & Paste. When I say move, that's what I mean - is there another way?

But to be clear, I can copy & paste the contents of the folders (individual files) without problem, but when I copy & paste the folder (with the contents) I get the error.
 
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graveller39 said:
Copy & Paste. When I say move, that's what I mean - is there another way?

But to be clear, I can copy & paste the contents of the folders (individual files) without problem, but when I copy & paste the folder (with the contents) I get the error.
Click to expand...
Yes, there is a difference between Move and C/P.

So Copy/Paste works, just not on the folder.
THis is a permissions issue.
 
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Yes, it would appear its a permission issue - but how and why? How can I, with an administrator account, not have permission to cut & paste these folders?

And I just noticed I said Copy & Paste in the previous post, but its only when I'm trying to Cut & Paste that I get the error. Copy & Paste works okay.
 
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graveller39 said:
Yes, it would appear its a permission issue - but how and why? How can I, with an administrator account, not have permission to cut & paste these folders?

And I just noticed I said Copy & Paste in the previous post, but its only when I'm trying to Cut & Paste that I get the error. Copy & Paste works okay.
Click to expand...
Ahhh....thats different.
Cut n Paste is a whole different thing.

The end of the 'Cut' part is removing the folder from the source location.
It would seem you do not have permissions to delete that folder, or there is still some data in there, possibly hidden.
 
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So I've not had any problem deleting the folders - only cut & paste.

What kind of hidden data might be there? I'm not seeing anything when I uncheck the 'Hide protected operating system files' box in Folder Options. I've also got 'Show hidden files, folders, and drives' selected.
 
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graveller39 said:
So I've not had any problem deleting the folders - only cut & paste.

What kind of hidden data might be there? I'm not seeing anything when I uncheck the 'Hide protected operating system files' box in Folder Options. I've also got 'Show hidden files, folders, and drives' selected.
Click to expand...
If you can Delete the folder(s) in question, I have no idea why it isn't working.

Except for....don't 'Cut/Paste'.
Always Copy/Paste, then delete the source.
 
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I suppose I can copy & paste - it just seems necessary to copy & paste as cut & paste doesn't actually move the data. Is there an advantage to copy & paste?

The issue does seem to be related to permissions, because taking ownership with a reboot usually works - but why would I not already have permission for a folder created with my own account?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
graveller39 said:
I suppose I can copy & paste - it just seems necessary to copy & paste as cut & paste doesn't actually move the data. Is there an advantage to copy & paste?

The issue does seem to be related to permissions, because taking ownership with a reboot usually works - but why would I not already have permission for a folder created with my own account?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Copy/Paste is the preferred method.
Cut/Paste or Move can have issues if the process fails in the middle.
With a large bunch of files, you never really know what got copied over.
This is even worse with a bunch of subfolders.

Copy, verify it all exists at the target, then delete the source.
 
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Solution
pctech2005 said:
i was referring the entire folder path. I have seen it before where files with many subfolders/layers would have that issue.
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Thanks, but that's not the issue here - the entire folder path is less than 100 characters.

As I mentioned, if I take ownership of the folder and then reboot, I can likely cut&paste the folder - although if I subsequently rename the folder, I get the error again when I try to cut&paste.

Part of the my question is why would I not have "ownership" in the first place? There are no other user accounts. These are all on my data drive, not the system (C) drive.
 
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graveller39 said:
Thanks, but that's not the issue here - the entire folder path is less than 100 characters.

As I mentioned, if I take ownership of the folder and then reboot, I can likely cut&paste the folder - although if I subsequently rename the folder, I get the error again when I try to cut&paste.

Part of the my question is why would I not have "ownership" in the first place? There are no other user accounts. These are all on my data drive, not the system (C) drive.
Click to expand...
Where did these folders come from originally?

Something YOU created?
Or copied/moved from somewhere else?
 
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The folders were created on my computer - no doubt some were created before I did an upgrade to Windows 10 (fresh install), but others were created after the new install. However, I don't think the upgrade is likely relevant, as I've had the same issue on my Windows 10 laptop. I'm also pretty sure I had seen this on Windows 7 as well, but I can't honestly remember.

The problem, for me at least, is quite odd.
As an example, I just tried this:
1) Folder A cut & pasted from Folder B to Folder C
2) I then created a new Folder D within Folder A
3) I moved 2 photos (mine) into the new Folder D
4) I tried to cut & paste Folder A back into Folder B, but received the error "access is denied"
- to be clear, I can no longer cut&paste this Folder A to any other location, but I can cut&paste the contents of Folder A to anywhere I try.
 
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Yes, after a Copy/Paste, I can delete the original source folder and its contents.

To be clear, its only a problem when I CUT & paste - never when I COPY & paste.

As per your suggestion, I may simply COPY & paste from here on, although I'm still a bit curious. You had stated, "With a large bunch of files, you never really know what got copied over." Its been my understanding that when using CUT & paste, nothing actually gets copied, the system just "sees" the folder or files in a different location. I suppose that's why I thought CUT & paste was the better option (when moving to a different location on the same drive). If I were moving to a location on a different drive, COPY & paste would definitely be the safer route.

At any rate, I find this behaviour quite puzzling, but perhaps its just one of the potential problems with the CUT & paste feature?
 
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graveller39 said:
As per your suggestion, I may simply COPY & paste from here on, although I'm still a bit curious. You had stated, "With a large bunch of files, you never really know what got copied over." Its been my understanding that when using CUT & paste, nothing actually gets copied, the system just "sees" the folder or files in a different location. I suppose that's why I thought CUT & paste was the better option (when moving to a different location on the same drive). If I were moving to a location on a different drive, COPY & paste would definitely be the safer route.
Click to expand...
This depends...

Are you doing this on the same drive or partition, or between drives?

In the same drive or partition, just the file allocation table gets updated.

Between 2 different drives or partitions, it actually Copies, Writes to the new location, then Cuts from the source.

File by file....not the whole thing.

But either way, if a problem happens in the middle, only some of them are in the new "location", and until you go through the whole stack, you don't know which ones.
It is not linear in any way.
 
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Thanks, when I said "drive", I should have specified "partition".

But I do see how even on the same partition, there could be potential problems with CUT & paste, depending on how the file allocation table gets updated, which I don't pretend to know.

If COPY & paste is the safer option, I'll certainly go with it.

Thanks again for your patience.
 
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