How to Fix Unable to save permission changes, Access is denied in Windows 11

Unable to save permission changes, Access is denied: Fix it in Windows 11. Well, get ready to learn how, because today we will tell you what you need to do.

If you use Windows 11 on your personal computer, and if you get the notification "Unable to save permission changes, Access is denied", then this might help you with some solution. This generally is an issue that occurs due to numerous reasons but essentially is a problem at the level of Windows itself. Most instances occur due to incorrect configuration of permissions, user role, or security settings.

If you don't have sufficient administrator privileges, attempt to edit a system-protected file, or try changing permissions on a file that another process is using, this error will appear. You may also see the problem if your business has set up Group Policy restrictions or if your external drive is write-protected. 

Here is the full error message: 

The permissions you just changed on [filename] cannot be saved.

Sorry, but you don't have access to that.

Fix Unable to Save Permission Changes, Access is Denied

To fix the Windows Security on Windows 11 and 10, which does not let you save permission changes, try these:

Make Yourself the Owner of That Folder or File

Return the rights to their default state

Activate the hidden Administrator account.

We recommend creating a system restore point before you begin so you can revert back to normal in case changes don't exactly work as planned.

1] Take Ownership of the File or Folder

There are several ways to take ownership of a folder or file in Windows 11. Let's go through each one of them.

Section A: Extend the File Explorer Security Settings

The nice thing about changing ownership in the GUI is that it has never been this easy.

Launch File Explorer or whatever other utility you may use to modify permissions, but make sure you're running it as an administrator. Right-click on a file or folder and choose properties to bring up its properties. Click the Security tab, then click Advanced. 

In the Advanced Security Settings window, click the Change button beside the name of the current owner.

If you don't see your user account in that list, you may alternatively type it in or enable the Advanced menu to locate it.

In the Advanced Security Settings window, your name should now appear as the file or folder owner. To take the ownership of all files and subfolders in a folder, select Replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Then after clicking OK and returning to the Security page, try changing the permissions again.

Section B] Take ownership:

Taking ownership of system files or many files at once is as easy as the execution of the takeown command.  

Now, proceed with the execution via Command Prompt as an administrator:

copy "file_or_folder_path" to Y

where for taking ownership of any particular file or folder, replace "file_or_folder_path" with its full path along with its extension.

An example of recursive ownership would be /R for subfolders and files, the /F flag for files, and the /D Y flag for forcing acceptance of ownership without prompt. 

When ready, one can modify the permissions of the file with additional commands.

C] Interacting with ICACLS 

In Windows, icacls is capable of more than just working with permissions; it can also take ownership of files and directories.

Now, please run the following command through Command Prompt as an administrator, replacing "file_or_folder_path" with the path to the folder or file you want to change ownership for, and "owner_name" with the desired owner name: icacls "file_or_folder_path" /setowner "owner_name" /T /C.

The /setowner flag of the command changes the current owner of a file or folder to the given user, the /T flag ensures that changes in ownership or permissions propagate through the whole directory structure, and the /C flag keeps doing the operation even if something goes wrong. 

Default permissions back in place,

The 'Access is denied' problem can be cleared by reverting the permissions of the file or folder back to their default settings, which means to the conditions at the time of installation or creation of Windows. It will clear off all customized settings that prevent access or edits to the file. 

Run the following in command prompt while logged in as an administrator to restore default permissions for files and folders:

"file_or_folder_path" = icacls /reset /T /C 

Resetting the rights of NTFS files in Windows can also be done through a graphical tool, which is known as Reset NTFS file permission. 

Step 3: Enable the hidden Administrator account.

The hidden Administrator account is an integrated Windows account with elevated permissions granted to it for complete system control. Even the ordinary administrator may not get access to modify the ownership and permission of certain files or directories using it. 

To enable the secret Administrator account in an elevated Command Prompt, execute the following command:

net user administrator on the network /active:yes

Once enabled you might want to try changing the file permissions by logging into Windows with this account-it will now appear on the login screen.

See: Windows File or Folder Error Messages Regarding Denied Access.

Cannot save permission changes on Wuauserv

Now, this service, on a Windows 11 or 10 computer, is controlled by the Wuauserv service. The operating system doesn't let this service be modified-as a sort of security measure for which it gives an 'Access is denied' error message. You can fix the error by changing the permissions and taking ownership of the Wuauserv service. Never do this unless required because it may leave your system vulnerable to attacks.

Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type in services.msc, and press Enter. In the listed services, find Windows Update, right-click, and stop the service. 

Press the Win + R keys again, then type in regedit and press Enter. Find the following key: 

key local machine system current control set services wuauserv

Right-click the "wuauserv" folder on the left side of the screen and select Permissions In the Permissions window select Advanced. Click the Change button on the right of the Owner field.

Before clicking OK, add your login in the Select User or Group window and click Check Names.

In the opened window, click Advanced Security Settings under Owner. Under Replace owner on subcontainers and objects, click OK to close the dialog box.

You can now change the permissions by taking ownership of it. You need to stop and then start Windows Update.

Can't save permission changes The media is write protected

Permission changes on selected file or folder couldn't be saved. If you try to change permissions of the already existing files and folders on a write-protected storage device, you will get "The media is write protected." This may be an internal drive or an external hard drive, SD card, or USB drive. You can use the utility called Diskaprt to remove the drive from write protection to solve this problem. Run the Command Prompt as administrator and, within the Command Prompt window, successively run the following commands:  

diskpart  

The command above will launch the Diskpart utility. Next, run the following command: 

display disc  

An inventory list of all the attached drives will be displayed. Next, run the following command: 

select the X-drive  

Replace "X" in the previous command with the number assigned to your problematic disk. Next, run the following command:

disk properties clear readonly 

(If the write protection is applied to a specific volume on the disk, you may also want to clear it at that level.) This will remove write protection from the disk.

This is how it is, so everything you need to know about How to Fix Unable to save permission changes, Access is denied in Windows 11, hopefully we have helped as much as possible.