Cannot Rename or Delete Folders that have Subfolders

Do you own the folder (some folders belongs to system)?

Is Explorer set to show hidden and system files?
Try to get ownership of the folder.
Take Ownership Shortcut

Megahertz07 said:

Do you own the folder (some folders belongs to system)?
I thought I did as I created them.

Is Explorer set to show hidden and system files?
It is set to show hidden files and folders but not system files.
Try to get ownership of the folder.
Take Ownership Shortcut

Thanks for responding.

I will add that the Operating System C: Drive is isolated on a SSD; everything else is stored on separate internal HDDs, five of them currently.

I can completely restart the machine (a huge annoyance) and everything will work as it should for a few changes and then revert back to not allowing them.

Restarting Explorer only will not make the problem go away even for the first few changes.

I will investigate this ownership business; I would have assumed that if I created the folders in the first place that I "Owned" them, but maybe not.

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I just now checked and I am the owner of the folders.

More Info: Now it gets a bit weird and hard to explain.

These are photo folders that I am working on.

I have a set of premade folder "trees" that I have been using for years, with the year at the top, containing sub-folders for each month, and each month containing a group of sub-folders A, B, C, etc., that I rename to suit whatever event or subject they will contain.
Each of these A, B, C, etc., folders contain premade folders where I store the various versions and types of photo files such as RAW, PSD, jpegs in progress, finished jpegs, and resized jpegs.

It is currently September; I cannot alter any folder that contains sub-folders in any month prior to and including September, REGARDLESS of whether said folder contains photos or is just empty folders.

However, I can do anything I want to any of the folders in October, November, and December with immediate response and no refusals.
Whether it has anything to do with it, these folders do not contain any photo files yet.

I did not have this problem a few weeks ago.

If any folder on the tree has a system file attribute you won't be able to delete it.
I suggest you set Explorer to view Hidden and System files and see if there is any of them.
It also maybe that a program prevents it to be deleted.

If you did not have this problem a few weeks ago, did you install any app or program since? Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features to see what has been installed.

I set system files visible and the only place I am seeing any system files are directly underneath the drive letter itself at the top of the tree; $recyclebin and System Volume somesuchorother; these two appear to be folders and, although I am administrator, it won't allow me to look inside them.

Just to see if one of my programs has decided to start putting a lock on things, when I get time and opportunity, I am going to restart the machine so that all programs will be closed; then, I will see if I have regained control with no programs open; then, open programs one by one, until maybe I find one that, when open, prevents me having control.

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The only recent addition to Programs and Features is 16-Sep-2022 Microsoft Office 365.

I have no idea as to why or where it came from; I didn't install it; I have had Microsoft Office for years and have never used it; I have no idea what it even does.

When was the last time you deleted temporary files and folders?
Run Disk clean up or use CCleaner

Megahertz07 said:

When was the last time you deleted temporary files and folders?

Probably never.
Will they all be in the same place ?

BuckSkin said:

Probably never.
Will they all be in the same place ?

No, they aren't.
You have windows/temp, users\Name\appdata\temp and also old and useless updated files.
Run %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe to delete the basic. CCleaner to also delete browser cache and other files.

Megahertz07 said:

When was the last time you deleted temporary files and folders?

Thanks for the suggestion.

I manually deleted every Temp file or folder that it would allow me to in AppData Local and in Windows Temp; there were tens of thousands of them (some seventy-plus GB); I narrowed them down to around seventy or so files that it just would not let me delete.

I restarted the machine twice.

I don't know how long it will last; but, so far, I have regained control of things and can rename, move, delete, and otherwise manipulate things.

I haven't yet opened all of the programs that are usually open; I shall see how that works out.

I had a bit of a setback earlier today as the durn electricity shut off for a split-second, shutting down the computer and probably losing a bunch of work I had done.

I will know in a few days whether my problem is going to come back or maybe this fixed it.

Since the problem began, a restart would make it go away for a while and the electricity going out has delayed me knowing for that much longer.

Hopefully, deleting all those Temp files has cured the situation.


All of this activity has brought about a couple of questions.

On my machine, I am Administrator, operating with Administrator priveleges; even at that, I had several Temp files/folders that it would say I needed permission from (machine name)_Administrator --- I thought I was Administrator --- I have ran into this before when trying to do other things.

Now, concerning the Temp folders, is there any harm in periodically wiping the slate clean ?

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Sunnysky said:

Have you run a chkdsk /f on C: or even just a chkdsk? $recyclebin and System Volume Information are normally restricted and used for the Recycling Bin and System Restore respectively. No need to explore that , I think just ignore those. But the September properties seems to be an error. Choose parent Photo folder> properties> Security> Advanced > Permissions|.. |Owner| > [Change Permissions] (select Administrators or User)...v.. [x]Replace all child objects permissions... [OK]

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Microsoft Office 365 can be uninstalled if you do not need it. I prefer to use Revo uninstaller and delete all the advanced search files and registry finds.

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If you want your system analyzed for efficiency on startups, Scheduled Tasks etc for improving performance, there are built-in tools and 3rd party ones . e.g. built-in > Win+r= run > msinfo32 >[enter] >File>save (yourname.nfo) and remember which folder. Then attach (big file) . No personal info is included.

Thanks for the input.

I am about afraid to run any of the chkdsk as I have had a few bad experiences from doing so.