Windows-10 changed all my documents to "Read-Only"

Thank you thank you

My documents are not read-only anymore! Awesome.
A few errors did occur while the document was sharing, and I don't know which files may still be read-only, but all the ones I have opened are editable. I'm glad such an easy fix existed.

This worked for me as well. Seems like this is something you should never, ever have to do just to get access to edit files you created in the first place. It also changed permissions on local copies of files I have in OneDrive.

But will it hold these settings after the next update? That's when mine got flipped back to read only. We shall see.

See my posting of a new topic "Windows 10 Read-Only Problem Has A Solution" for details. The problem is really only in the folder "properties" and "security" permission. Just make sure we the owner/user have "full control" and "modify" permission. Windows 10 reset the permission to protect us. Urrrrrrrg.... Actually, once this problem is dealt, I really liked Windows 10 as it has so many cool new features. The best part is that it boots real fast. Windows 7 took forever. This problem took me almost three full days to understand as information being so random and confusing and hard to find. Microsoft doesn't have a good search mechanism to take us to the answer. Thanks to Google which deserves all the credit in finding the right answers.

I was getting quite frustrated with the read only matter. Thanks as your tip worked.

That works until you reboot. Then everything is back to read-only.

Thank you, Stunun...your solution worked perfectly!

Thanks you solution worked immediately. I tried all the other suggestions but none did. I live in UK. There are no MS guys to help here.

Thank you for sharing this fix - I was at wits end wondering if I was going to lose all my files and never be able to update again! Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!

Thanks so much for this help. It seems to have worked for me and also made it possible to transfer photos (files) using a USB connection from my Android phone to a PC which I was unable to do before. No thanks to Microsoft on this one. As usual they are doing the Henry Ford thing; letting the user patch the thing together with tin and bailing wire. BTW, I'm working with Windows 10 on a PC that originally had 8.1 on it.

Thanks it works for me

Yeah! It worked for me. I can now save and edit my MS Word 2007 files using Windows 10. Thanks for the help.

You saved my day! It works for me.

Obviously this person does not have the latest Windows 10!

You are not able to change the attributes even if you take ownership, and or log in as Administrator.

Not only are our files being changed to READ ONLY but so are the folders, and external USB drives are being changed to Write Protected!

None of the tools or cmds that use to work will!

What is worse users were complaining to Microsoft for the last 3 months about this and MS did nothing to address this issue.

I have access to ATTRIB and more. I can change attributes with the command line, if need be in safe mode. I can also use ACL tools but that's a little advanced.

There are folders and files that you can't change that are under SFP but that was in effect in 7 and 8.

The external read only problem has been around since prior versions. I've fixed many by wiping the drive, creating a new partition and restoring the files. Now there are folk that call that a bug/issue but to write i don't know this area is, well, you don't know me and I don't know you.

Me? Been at this since pre-DOS, so let's focus on the issue?

I'm always reluctant to look for solutions in chat rooms. It is always frustrating to have to wade through this blither from people who clearly don't know what they are talking about. The Win 10 RO issue here is a textbook example.

used Admin mode in a command box (from right clk on start button) and any attempt to change attrib for a file gets an "Access denied".

Yeah I know i have tried that too, I did not get the "access denied" but even after it looked like it was changing the attributes, as soon as you go back out to check they are read only again.

Doing the nuclear option of formatting your hard drive and re-installing is always last resort!

If so, make a new folder on the C: drive and copy the files in question into the new folder. THEN you can modify the contents of that new folder.
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When you've gotten your system back like you want it, I urge you to get yourself an external hard drive and a good 3rd party backup program. You can set it up to do everything automagically at the time and frequency of your choice. 1 TB external hard drives are about $50 these days and a really good FREE backup program is the Easeus Todo Backup Free. That can save you a lot of time and frustration the next time something like this happens. Sooner or later it happens to all computers for one reason or another.

Good luck.

The damage that MS is doing to their customers in lost man hours with people trying to fix this has to be immense.

Maybe the MS competition slipped some code in the source of the OS

I sue would be nice to if MS would at least acknowledge this super problem and provide a TTF (Time To Fix).

upgraded to windows 10 and was being denied access to certain folders.If I went to play a game I couldnt save because of access denied to were the game saves if changed permision on the file it would work untill i restarted the pc. I dont know if this is because of logging in with a microsoft account or if i didnt have admin privlages.Didnt check to see if my files were read only .Anyway got tierd of mesing with dont know that much about conputers reall wanted to like windows 10.Did a fresh install of windows 7 nuked everything and started from sratch.PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!.

First, the likely only real solution is reported in This Read-Only Problem Has Been Solved on My Computer by YPCheng. It is the file takeownership.zip. YPCheng failed to give the link because the MS support person downloaded it to him.

The message Don't be too upset by R. Proffitt is, at once, condescending and self aggrandizing and potentially dangerous for most but the truly knowledgeable. The link shown in his 'advice' gives the standard instructions for attribute changes but does not include Windows 10 in the list of applicable Windows versions. NOTE: This cnet forum is about Windows 10. Not previous versions.

Furthermore, you clearly don't know the real cause for the problem, nor do you understand software even though you state in your post Odd how long you have been involved with computers. So why waste everyone's time without giving the hard, official solution. (As given in YPCeng's message quoted above.) Instead you offer more of the same useless help that is slowly filling this forum. Pros, real pros, would never offer workarounds in a situation like this. That is diddling. Don't diddle around in a major, highly sophisticated, and from the signs of it, fragile OS. That is a BIG No No!

So, pleeeeze . . . don't waste our time with prose designed to impress with huge experience. If and when you have the real solution, directly from MS--just give us the link. Don't bother to translate and impress with your superior computer prowess--just the link, and we'll go there.

Confession: absent knowledge about the MS solution above, the takeownership.zip file, I went ahead and used the homegroup solution and that seems to work, albeit with some reverses. In other words in my impatience I may have messed up my system in ways I may yet have to discover. Talk about not following my own better knowledge/advice.

It was distracting from the solution. You could have simply pointed out as I did that it wasn't working for windows 10, even though it works for versions previous to 10. Everyone in this forum is learning the latest idiosyncracies of newest windows 10, now out for less than a month, and still under updates continuously, whether professional or casual computer users. THAT's the purpose of this forum.

When I have a problem and can't get an answer from the maker, I try the general internet. Only when neither of those paths give solid results, will I go into forums.

I fear forums. They are the gathering place for an eclectic mix of folk. Some seek help. Others offer help. But much of the offered help is false or misses the point. Often the bad help is full of self serving soliloquy, gibberish, or amateurish diddling about subjects the respondents don't know enough, if anything about.

Why do the unqualified ones insist in pushing their ignorance on others who seek REAL help?

In short, I came to this forum to find the hard answer to the problem with the stuck RO setting in Win 10. Instead, as always I run into mostly unqualified gibberish. Sorry, good intentions are good only in the American public school system. They are useless in a real-word forum where people seek real answers to pressing, real problems. This forum is no exception.

If only the unqualified would stay out of the forums.

This can really upset folk that there is more than one fix. The first time I found permissions, ownership and access rights to fix it. Later I bumped into where that didn't work but the Homegroup workaround fixed it.

Just like you I'm encountering folk that are upset about all this and want the one true fix. Instead I'm using 2 fixes and then it seems to depend if they are using the local login or the new email login.

Why this is, won't fit in a forum reply as we get to hold classes on NTFS, ACL, Windows Networking and more.

Truly too much to ask for everyday users.

Please read the forum policies about flaming. All help is by volunteers, so no need for it.
Dafydd.