Cannot delete file: Access is denied
Contributed by Hack_Vista 
Tagged: Windows How many times have you seen this error? If I want to delete a file, I WANT TO DELETE THE FILE! At least windows should tell you, who is locking the file, right? Here are some helpful hints to get you around this common windows problem.
You’ve seen these errors. So painful.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Cannot delete file: Access is denied.
The file is in use by another program or user.
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
First I would suggest trying to find out why the file is locked. If it is spyware or a critical process, you may want to know that such a problem exists. WhoLockMe will allow you to right-click any file and see what program is locking the file. A more powerful version of this is actually unlocker than will allow you to kill the processes that are locking file file and delete them automatically.
If you want to try to avoid installing more software, you can try these helpful hints in the prior recipe:
Access Denied — How to Delete Protected or Spyware Files. By using these techniques, many times you’ll be able to close the locking program and continue with your day without downloading additional software.
How to delete locked files is one of the most requested problems at my PC shop. Maybe, this will keep me off the phone!
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icanhelp said on December 10, 2008
Most times when this this happens the first thing i try to do is rename the file. I usually get an access is denied error for that as well, but if the file has subfolders try renaming those too. This usually doesn’t work but it does for some files.
Anon said on March 10, 2009
far too many ads on this page, it actually put you off wanting to read it!
shashi said on July 9, 2009
thanks the wholockme program helped me a lot….!!
Anonymous said on August 31, 2009
If you cannot delete a file or directors, probably it might be corrupted. In such cases no tools will work. Just apply the Command C:/chkdsk/f from windows command prompt. this turn the corrupted file and directory to normal status and you can delete the file easily as you do usually.
sknyer – the superwiz tech -
Sharon said on November 10, 2009
thanks for giving a straight answer and not sending me to a “you need a registry scan site” we know the purpose of those sites, to earn commissions.
your site is very helpful and valuable. i am bookmarking it.
i’ll be back…
hasta la vista, baby
Anonymous said on December 24, 2009
How do you delete a file or folder where you get an error message beginning “(file or folder name) refers to a location that is unavailable”? I’ve got a whole lot of files where I get this message. I can’t rename them, delete them, move them or change the file extensions on them. Unlocker or delete-on-reboot don’t work on them. Advice, please. Thanks. Ian
pissedoff said on January 12, 2010
went to the unlocker link above..guess what came up…PERMISSION IS DENIED..LOL..thanks alot for nothing
pissedoff said on January 12, 2010
went to the unlocker link above..guess what came up…PERMISSION IS DENIED..LOL..thanks alot for nothing
Anonymous said on March 3, 2010
Some files are inside Windows users folder and have stronger security settings. This happens more often with Illustrator files and folders having at one point highter settings. Unlocking these files, trying to delete them using the command propmt or even using administrative access does not work. You can often avoid this if you keep these type of files outside of the Windows user folder.
Solution: You can still delete them if you change your user setting “Turn User Account Control Off.” After deleting you can reset the secruity setting.
Anonymous said on March 25, 2010
Just go to drive, where you folder of file is contained . right click to open security . Select the user with which you have loged in and under assign full control.
this will work if you have permission of assigning access rights.
saptami sarkar said on March 27, 2010
Hi,
I just had this ditto issue with 3 real player files, they are finally gone.
This is what I did.
1) Uninstall the programme ,re-install it later if you choose to.
2) create a folder
3) delete the folder instead of individual files together
Well It worked for me…
nazim said on May 3, 2010
icanhelp – thanks a lot. i had an .flv file which was simply refusing to go away. i changed the .flv to .txt; after that i changed the name of the file itself. then i hit the delete key. it went away… phew!
Shashwat Tripathi said on June 20, 2010
thank
Xxxeni said on July 8, 2010
WhoLockMe.exe (from Paris, France) has spyware/malware in it. It is nasty to advertise it as the least. Should be criminal.
Xxxeni said on July 8, 2010
Do you know what governments do to spies? They prosecute them – prison terms or a death penalty. Yet those who load spyware, malware etc. into person computers are ignored, is this legal? Spyware loading into any computer should be made criminal!
Terrym2442 said on July 26, 2010
nazim- THANK YOU. I spent the last 1/2 hr trying all kinds of fixes and only yours worked.
Mehrotra001 said on August 11, 2010
Can U guide to locate locking handle of ‘access denied’ files, USBs etc?
Please respond by mail at mehrotra001@gmail.com ,+ 91 9979874999
Shgs03 said on August 26, 2010
My operation system is Windows xp2. I log off guest. then i want to delete file for D driver. But can not delete file. Because access is denied. Why? Help me?
Ajayrajawat009 said on December 11, 2010
i want to normal user can not delete created file in lan network.on windows xp and server2003
Sader said on February 20, 2011
Its very easy and simple…just rename the file and make it .txt extensions and then tru to delete it, it will work right away..Ali