Windows: How to remove write protection from a file inside a vault

Knowledge Base Guides
1

Hey Folks,

since i read recently several reports about problems with write protected files, I’ll post a short guide how to “unprotect” them.

First of all: This is a known issue (see bug report #776) and only related to Dokany. If you are using WinFSP, this guide does not change anything.

So, let’s assume you have created a vault myVault and it is stored under the path D:\path\to\myVault ( NOT the location of your unlocked vault).

  1. Open a terminal
  2. Change to the encrypted vault: cd "D:\path\to\myVault"
  3. Enter the following command and hit enter: attrib -R /S

The command will remove the write protection file attribute from any file in D:\path\to\myVault and any subdirectory. After it, you should be able to do normal actions on the previous write protected files in your unlocked vault (e.g. delete them).

Addendum: If the files are additionally hidden or marked as system files, you need a terminal with admin privileges and add to the attrib command the -H and -S options.

Hope that helps.

5 Likes