How Can You Fix [You Don’t Have Permission to Save in This Location] Error

Scenario: How do I solve ‘You don't have permission to save in this location’?

If you encounter a situation where you're attempting to save a file to a specific folder, you might come across a notification that informs you that you lack the necessary permissions to save in that particular location. Please reach out to the administrator for permission and it is advisable to save the file in a different folder.

The error message "You don't have permission to save in this location" suggests that your system settings and file/folder settings.

Normally, this problem may arise because:

☹ Folder Ownership and Access Rights: The folder may be owned by another user or the system, and the current user does not have the required read/write access. This can happen if the folder is part of another user's profile or system directory.

☹ Protected System Directories: The operating system protects certain directories on the computer, such as C:\Program Files, C:\Windows, or other system folders to prevent unauthorized changes. Only users with administrative privileges can modify these directories.

☹ User Account Control (UAC) Settings: On Windows systems, User Account Control (UAC) may prevent changes to certain protected locations unless an administrator explicitly approves the action.

☹ Antivirus or Security Software: Security software may be blocking changes to certain directories to prevent malware from executing. This can restrict the ability to save files in those locations.

☹ Read-Only Attributes: The target directory or the entire drive might be set to read-only, preventing any new files from being saved.

6 ways to fix [You don’t have permission to save in this location]

Here, we prepare some solutions for “You don’t have permission” problems.

Note: If your system requires Admin password but you don't have it or forget it, you may need to reset Admin password at first.

Method 1. Allow Admin permission to specific folders

To resolve the error, follow the notification's instructions to grant administrative permission to the designated folder.

Step 1: Right-click the folder you want to save files to and select Properties from the context menu.

Step 2: Select Security tab in the pop-up window, and click Edit to change permission.

Step 3: Select Administrators and check Full control in Allow column. Then click OK to save the changes.

Solution 2. Change the owner of the folder

Step 1: Navigate to Security tab after opening Properties window of the folder and click Advanced button.

Step 2: In the pop-up window, find Owner and click Change next to it.

Step 3: Type the object name in the empty box and click Check Names to check whether the name is legal. If yes, the complete name will be detected and displayed as the following picture, and you just need to click OK.

Step 4: Check Replace owner on subcontainers and objects and click OK.

Step 5: Repeat the steps of Method 1 to give Full control, then restart your PC to activate the changes.

Method 3. Remove the read-only attribute from the target drive

Way 1. Using Command Prompt to remove read-only attribute

Step 1. Press Win + X and select Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin). Type:

diskpart
list volume
select volume X (Identify the drive you want to modify from the list. Note the volume number, e.g., Volume 3)
attributes disk clear readonly

Way 2. Check read-only drive

If the read-only issue is caused by a disk error, such as a bad sector, it is not suitable to remove the read-only attribute using the Command Line because this will clean all data. Alternatively, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can be utilized to identify and resolve any potential errors present on the target drive.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer

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Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

1. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Right-click the read-only drive and choose "Advanced" > "Check Partition". 

2. Choose the first method to check and fix found error and click "OK".

3. Then wait for the process to be completed.

Method 4. Permit the current user

Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run Window. Enter netplwiz and click OK button.

Step 2: In the User Accounts window, select the account with which you are getting the error message and click Properties.

Step 3: Under Group Membership tab, make sure that Administrator has been checked to grant this user and click Apply and then OK.

Method 5. Disable user account control

If you're tired of those pesky notifications, simply adjust the settings to Never notify for this user account. Disable notifications for app changes and Windows Settings on your computer.

Step 1. Open Change User Account Control Settings by searching directly in Cortana search box.

Step 2. In the main interface of the Setting, move the slider to Never notify position and click OK to save this change.

Method 6. Change a save location

If you prefer not to address this minor issue for personal reasons, you have the option to select an alternative location to save the file. In a more user-friendly manner, you have the option to simply click YES on the message window. This will allow you to save the file to the suggested folder, as indicated by the notification.

To sum up

Typically, you can resolve the error message "You don't have permission to save in this location" by adjusting folder permissions or running your program with administrative privileges. If not, you may need to consider one of the alternative methods mentioned earlier to resolve the frustrating error message.

AOMEI Partition Assistant has multiple functions to help you manage your drives. If you need more advanced helps, you can upgrade to the Professional Edition to unlock features like cloning disk/partition, moving installed apps, allocating drive space and so on.