Server 2003 Cannot unset read-only on some folders

[genistas]

Hi,

I have a folder called users, and in that folder are about 100 sub-folders each with the name of a different user on the network. About half of those subfolders are read only, yet when I uncheck the read only box, click ok and then click apply to all subfolders and files, NOTHING HAPPENS. I've tried doing this for the entire users folder as well but without success. I've thoroughly looked through the settings and compared the read-only folders to the non read-only folders and I don't see a thing different.

Any help with this one would be greatly appreciated!

 

[veedubfreak]

Have you tried copying the folder and contents to a new folder?

 

[TheEmperor]

They are supposed to show up that way. All of the user folders on all of our 2003 servers show up with the Read Only box checked when you open the properties for them. So far it doesn't interfere with anything. Why do you want to change it?

 

[genistas]

Hello,

I want to change it because many users can read the files in their folders but cannot save files to their folders. I've tried changing this for individual files but it still keeps changing back.

 

[genistas]

No, I haven't tried moving the files. Since their profiles are mapped to their folders I would probably have to create a temp folder for each user, copy the data, delete the original folder, recreate it, and copy the data back. I'll try that, but I'd like to avoid having to do it for all 50+ users.

Thanks!

 

[TheEmperor]

That sounds like a permissions issue. If you right click on the user folder, click properties, click the security tab, and check the users permissions do they have Full Control to the folder?

 

[KSoD]

TheEmperor is right. The Users do not have rights to modify and save the files. That is the issue. They have to be given the security rights to modify those files.

 

[genistas]

Actually, I've confirmed that all users have full control of their folders. I've gone out to command prompt and manually set attrib -r to those folders and that has (so far) seemed to remove the r attribute in explorer. I'm interested to see what happens Monday morning when everyone comes back into work. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for you help!

 

[genistas]

Well it didn't work... Even after manually unsetting the readonly attribute for each folder, users are still getting read only errors on their folders and files. THey all have full control of their folders and I'm completely out of ideas!

Could it have something to do with the fact that all of these folders had been moved from another server to this one? Administrator has ownership of all these folders.

 

[TheEmperor]

Well it didn't work... Even after manually unsetting the readonly attribute for each folder, users are still getting read only errors on their folders and files. THey all have full control of their folders and I'm completely out of ideas!

Could it have something to do with the fact that all of these folders had been moved from another server to this one? Administrator has ownership of all these folders.

That's probably your issue right there. We just did a file server migration and ran into some similar issues when the ownership/permissions didn't carry over correctly.
Go to one of the problem folders, right click on it, click properties, go to the Security Tab, click Advanced, go to the Owner tab, click Other Users or Groups and select the user who should own the folder from the list. Check the "Replace Owner on Subcontainers and Objects" box and then click ok. After a few minutes of chugging your user should have no further problems. Repeat this process for each user folder that has an issue.

Let me know how it turns out.