How to fix access is denied, file may be in use, or sharing violation errors in Windows

Posted on October 18, 2007 at 7:55 am

Make sure to read other posts from the Fix Windows Errors series!

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How to fix Microsoft Windows Search Indexer stopped working and was closed
How to fix access is denied, file may be in use, or sharing violation errors in Windows
How to fix "there no active mixer devices available" error message in Windows
How to fix svchost.exe errors and problems with high CPU usage

Ever try to delete a file and get an Access is denied error? Or maybe you’re trying to copy or move a file or folder and you get a message stating the source file may be in use? This type of error can occur for several reasons: you do not have ownership of the file or folder and therefore cannot perform any actions on it or the operating system or another program is currently using it.

You can usually figure out which situation you’re involved with by taking a look at what exactly you’re trying to do. If you get the Access is Denied error message when trying to open a folder in Windows XP, then you’re looking at a permission problem. If you’re not an Administrator on the computer, you’re probably not going to be able to fix this issue!

However, if you are the Administrator and you’re getting this message, you can fix it by following the simple procedure in this Microsoft KB article that basically resets the file or folder permissions.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881

Fixing sharing violation or file may be in use errors

Note that getting the Access is Denied message can be caused by a sharing violation, so if the above method did not work, try the following.

You can download and install a free program called Unlocker that will allow you to right-click on the file or folder in question and see all of the processes that currently hold a lock.

If the program finds any locks, you’ll get a window as shown below where you can either kill the process or Unlock all of the processes.

Also, you can choose an action from the drop down menu, which includes Copy, Move, Delete and Rename for a locked file. The program is very useful when you get these types of error messages:

Cannot delete file: Error 5 Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation
The source or destination file may be in use
The file is in use by another program or user
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use

Program is very light weight and does not take up very many resources at all. Works pretty well, but of course I was not able to test every situation! Like I said above, if you’ve been denied access manually by someone, you will not be able to get into that folder or file unless you are given permissions from an Administrator!

Source via TechDeep

[tags]access is denied, error 5 access is denied, access is denied error, file may be in use, sharing violation, file access denied, delete access denied[/tags]

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