[Solved] You Don't Currently Have Permission to Access This Folder on Windows 11/10/8/7

“I have a FreeAgent GoFlex Drive 2TB. When I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8, I’m getting the error ’You don't currently have permission to access this folder.’ when I try to open up a folder. and when I try to uncheck the box and click apply it is always turned back on. Please help!”

no permission

When you are trying to access or open a folder on your Windows computer, USB or other external drive, you receive an prompt with saying "You don't currently have permission to access this folder."  You might wonder what factors can account for this issue and what are you supposed to do to fix it? Please read on to learn how to “fix You don't currently have permission to access this folder” with two possible ways on Windows 11 PC.

Part 1: Possible Reasons for This Issue

First of all, we suggest you to make clear of the reason why this issue happened. Below are the some possible reasons that make you be denied permission to access this folder windows, let’s check it out together:

  • The user or group has been accidently deleted from Group or user names on the folder’s Security tab.
  • The Deny has mistakenly been used to the user or group.
  • A conflict between share permissions and New Technology File System (NTFS) permissions was created when someone changes permissions without examining these two types of permissions.

Part 2: Possible Solutions to Fix “You Don't Currently Have Permission to Access This Folder”

Since we figured out the possible reasons for being denied permission to access folder in Windows 11, now let’s move to the solutions to fix it, there are two ways covered in this part, just take a look at them:

Solution 1: Changing Settings to Give Permission to The Folder

You can change the settings to give permission to the folder. To do so, just follow these steps:

The first step is to right click on the target folder that you’re unable to access and select the “Properties” on the bottom of the list.

properties

Next, select ‘Security’ tab and hit ‘Edit’ under ‘Group or user names

group

Then click on ‘Add’ and type ‘everyone’ in the blank field under the Select Users or Groups.

select

Click on ‘Check names’ and then hit ‘OK’.

After that, select ‘everyone’ and select ‘Full control’ under ‘Allow’, then click on ‘Apply’ and Click ‘Ok’, after that, you will have full control over the folder and its content..

apply

Solution 2: Disable the UAC to Fix “You Don't Currently Have Permission to Access This Folder”

If you have multiple file Servers, you can create a Group Policy and assign the group policy to the OU. You can use security filtering to target the files. If you have only few File Servers, you can modify the Local Security Policies.

First of all, you need to logon to your serve.

Then click on Start > Run > GPEdit.msc

run

Go to Computers > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options

option

Update the following highlighted Policies to the value shown below.

value

Now restart the server for changes to take effect.

Now, you can access the folders without the prompt and no need to about explicit ACL being permissioned to folders.

Hope either of solution above helps. But one thing we need to point out is that this issue may lead to the data loss on your computer, USB flash drive and other external drive even you can completely have this issue fixed. What if some valuable data disappeared from your PC or removable devices, what could you do?

Part 3: Recover Lost Data with Any Data Recovery on Windows 11

If you still cannot access your folder after repairing, you need a third-party data recovery software to help you retrieve your data from 'You don't currently have permission to access this folder' error. Here we recommend Windows Data Recovery, powerful data recovery program that can easily deleted/inaccessible/corrupted folders on Windows 11/10/8/7.

Step 1: Free download and install Any Data Recovery on your PC, and then launch it.
Step 2: Select the file types for recovery, choose a location and click "Scan".

location

Step 3: Then Any Data Recovery will start a quick scan to find lost files. After that, you are allowed to preview and restore lost files. Finally, click "Recover" to save them to another safe spot in PC/storage device.

preview

Then click "Recover" to save them to another safe spot in PC/storage device.

Hope this article is helpful on fix you don't currently have permission to access this folder, for any help related to Windows, you may always post on the comment section of this article. Thank you!