“You Don’t Currently Have Permission to Access This Folder”: How to Fix It

Applies to: Windows 11 and Windows 10, for folders on internal drives, external USB drives, old user profiles and the Windows.old folder.

Why Windows shows this message

Every folder on an NTFS drive has a list of accounts that may open it. When your account isn’t on that list, File Explorer shows this message instead of the folder’s contents. Common situations:

• The folder belongs to another user profile on the same PC, for example C:\Users\OldName.
• The drive came from another PC or an older Windows installation, so its permissions name accounts that no longer exist (they show as long S-1-5-21-... codes).
• The folder is a protected system folder, such as WindowsApps or System Volume Information.
• The files were encrypted with EFS by another account.
• It’s a network folder whose permissions are set on the server.

Fix 1: Select Continue as an administrator

The full message reads “You don’t currently have permission to access this folder. Click Continue to permanently get access to this folder.”

1. Make sure you’re signed in with an administrator account (Settings > Accounts > Your info shows Administrator under your name).
2. Select Continue and approve the User Account Control prompt.
3. Windows adds your account to the folder’s permissions and opens it.

This permanently changes the folder’s permissions for your account, which is fine for your own data but not for system folders. On a standard account, Continue asks for an administrator’s password.

Fix 2: Take ownership of the folder

If Continue leads to “You have been denied permission to access this folder. To gain access to this folder you will need to use the security tab”, you need to become the folder’s owner first. The owner can always change its permissions.

1. Right-click the folder and select Properties, then open the Security tab.
2. Select Advanced.
3. Next to Owner at the top, select Change.
4. Type your user name (or your Microsoft account email), select Check Names and then OK.
5. Tick Replace owner on subcontainers and objects so the change also applies to everything inside.
6. Select Apply, then OK on any messages, and close all the Properties windows.

Owning a folder doesn’t automatically let you open it, so continue with Fix 3.

Fix 3: Give your account Full control

1. Open the folder’s Properties > Security tab again and select Edit.
2. Select Add, type your user name, select Check Names and OK.
3. With your account selected, tick Allow next to Full control.
4. Select Apply and wait for Windows to apply the permissions to all files. This can take a while on large folders.

If some files still refuse to open, go to Security > Advanced, tick Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object and select Apply. Only do this on your own data folders, since it overwrites any custom permissions inside.

Fix 4: Use takeown and icacls (Command Prompt)

For large folders or when the Security tab keeps failing, the built-in takeown and icacls commands do the same job faster. Search for cmd, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Replace the path with your folder:

takeown /f "D:\Old Files" /r /d y
icacls "D:\Old Files" /grant Administrators:F /t

• takeown /f makes your account the owner of the folder; /r includes all subfolders and /d y answers yes to the prompts on an English-language Windows.
• icacls ... /grant Administrators:F /t gives the Administrators group Full control of the folder and everything in it.
• Read the summary at the end. “Failed processing 0 files” means it worked.

Only use these commands on folders you understand. Running them on C:\Windows or C:\Program Files can break Windows and apps.

Fix 5: Check for encryption

If you own the files and have Full control but they still won’t open, they may be encrypted with EFS by another account. Encrypted files often show a small padlock icon or green names in File Explorer.

1. Right-click a file, select Properties and then Advanced on the General tab.
2. If Encrypt contents to secure data is ticked, only the account that encrypted it (or one with its certificate) can open it.
3. Sign in with the original account, or import that account’s encryption certificate if you backed it up. Without the certificate the files can’t be recovered.

This is different from BitLocker, which locks the whole drive and asks for a password or recovery key when you connect it.

Fix 6: Network folders and shared drives

On a shared folder from another PC or a server, your local administrator rights don’t help: the permissions are set on the computer that shares the folder. Ask whoever manages that computer to give your account access in the folder’s Sharing and Security settings. If the share isn’t reachable at all, see error 0x80070035: network path not found, and for mapped drive letter conflicts see “The local device name is already in use”.

Folders you should not take over

Windows blocks some folders on purpose. Changing their owner or permissions can stop updates, Store apps or System Restore from working:

• C:\Program Files\WindowsApps (Microsoft Store apps)
• System Volume Information (restore points and indexing data)
• C:\Windows and its subfolders, such as System32
• Other users’ AppData folders while that account is still in use

If you already changed permissions on a system folder and Windows is misbehaving, run sfc /scannow as described in this SFC and DISM guide. If a folder you created yourself suddenly became inaccessible for no clear reason, it’s also worth running a malware scan.

Related guides

• Error 0x80070035: the network path was not found
• “The local device name is already in use”: how to fix it
• Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation (SFC and DISM)
• How to scan your PC for malware with Microsoft Defender

Official sources: for more detail, see Microsoft’s own documentation:

• Microsoft Learn: takeown command reference
• Microsoft Learn: icacls command reference

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to click Continue?

Yes for your own data folders, old user folders and external drives. It only adds your account to the folder’s permissions. Avoid it on Windows system folders.

Why do I get this on my own external drive?

The drive was probably formatted or used on another PC, so its permissions name that PC’s accounts. Taking ownership on the new PC fixes it.

Will taking ownership delete any files?

No. Ownership and permissions control who can open files; they don’t change the files’ contents.

How do I undo the permission changes?

For a folder that should simply inherit normal permissions, icacls "D:\Old Files" /reset /t in an administrator Command Prompt replaces its permissions with the ones inherited from the parent folder.