Why do I get an “Access Denied” error every time I try to read a file even though I’ve double-checked my permissions, and they’re ok?

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When you try to access a file on an NTFS file system volume, you may receive an “access is denied” error message. The file’s NTFS permissions indicate that you can access the file.

This message will appear if another user has encrypted the file:

Or this error:

This behavior can occur if another user has encrypted the file. To determine if a file has been encrypted, see the Quickly Check EFS Attributes article.

To resolve this behavior, the file must be decrypted by the user who encrypted the file, or by the designated Recovery agent. Files that are encrypted by using the Encrypting File System (EFS) are accessible only to the person who encrypted the file, regardless of the other permissions that are on the file.

Related articles

You might also want to read the following related articles:

• Compression and Other Attributes in EFS
• Copy Encrypted Files on the Network
• Data Protection and Recovery in Windows XP
• Disable EFS in Windows 2000
• Disable EFS in Windows XP/2003
• How does EFS Work?
• New EFS Features in Windows XP
• Quickly Check EFS Attributes
• Quickly Check Which User Encrypted a File
• What’s EFS?

Links

“Access Is Denied” Error Message Appears When Permissions Are Correct – 250494