Cannot change READ ONLY file attributes using Administrator Account

Less than ideal but I ran:

• attrib -r +s c:\audiobooks\*.*

and it worked. the *.*  applies the attrib command to each file in the folder. My guess it would get hung up on subfolders.

I was having problems changing the read only attribute on a folder so I could change an mp3 file to be seen as an audiobook within itunes.

Hope that helps someone

I have the exact same issue.  Following the steps above did not work, the folder/subfolders remain Read-Only.  I am the owner of the folder and subfolders.  I'm not even sure how they became Read-Only to begin with.  Setting Read-Only on individual files works properly.  Changing folder settings does not.

***IMPORTANT EDIT:

According to a Microsoft Knowledge Base post:

You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders

To summarize, Windows ignores System or Read-Only settings on folders (it does not ignore those properties on FILES however).  Individual applications that you are running may not ignore the Read-Only status on a folder and may give an error.  In my situation, an application was attempting to create a new file in a folder that was marked as Read-Only and it honored the RO setting and refused to try to create the new file.

To actually change these attributes, the Properties menu will not work.  From the KB source:

• If you click Apply changes to this folder only , the Read-only attribute is changed for all the files in the folder. However, the Read-only attribute is not changed for the folder, its subfolders, or any files in its subfolders. If you click Apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files , the Read-only attribute is changed for all files in the folder and all files in the subfolders. However, the Read-only attribute is not changed for the folder or its subfolders.

In order to change these properties, the user must launch a command line terminal and execute the changes by hand, such as this command:

• attrib -r +s c:\test

...which will remove the READ-ONLY setting and apply the SYSTEM setting to the folder.  Once again, changing properties of files (including files in subfolders) works as expected with the right-click Properties -> Security menu.

Knowledge Base source:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326549

Bad support, MS.

Running Windows 8 and this is still happening.

This plagued my use of ArcGIS.  Half the time tools will fail because the folder keep swapping back to read-only.  No clue why the read-only flag would ever be used to flag a folder for anything other than read-only.  This has only caused headaches and a horrible decision.

I'd like to see this fixed in a patch.

Thanks for this answer.  Using attrib from the command line works.

I tried that.  It didn't work.

This is clearly a long-running problem that is causing me, and many others, lots of frustration.  And I'm surprised (and disappointed) that MicroSoft haven't got it sorted by now.

I dragged the hex named directories to the $RECYCLE.BIN folder in the external drive. $RECYCLE.BIN is a system folder and has the attribute "Hidden". In order to be shown you have to set "Hidden Files and Folders" to "Show hidden files, folders and drives"  in Tools ==> Folder Options. After dragging the folders to $RECYCLE.BIN you can set "Hidden files and folders" to "Don't show ..." back again.