All my files read-only

Hi Kathy Underwood,

Thank you for reaching out. I understand how worrying it can be when all your files suddenly appear to be read-only.

The filled or dashed Read-only box under Properties > General can be confusing. In Windows 11, it may reappear after being cleared, but this does not necessarily mean the folder or its files are locked.

As a quick test, please create a new folder in Documents, add a text file and check whether you can edit, save, rename and delete it. If you cannot, right-click the affected folder, select Properties > Security, choose your Windows account and check whether Write and Modify are allowed.

If this happens only with Word or Excel files, please also check whether they are opening in Protected View, whether Office is activated and whether your OneDrive storage is full.

When you have a moment, please let me know the test result and the exact error message you see when trying to edit or save a file. I’ll be happy to help you further from there.

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The folder properties item you are looking at does NOT mean the folder is read-only. It's just a control that can be used to set (or unset) files within the folder as read-only. Even though it's a checkbox it provides no status whatsoever. It's a legacy thing that you can safely ignore. Actual read-only folder settings are done through the Security tab of the folder, but you should not have to touch that unless you (or someone else) previously intentionally changed permissions using that tab.

Presumably you had an issue that led you to look at the folder properties in the first place. What problem occurred? What error message was displayed? What software were you using? Microsoft Office perhaps?