You Need Permission To Delete Folder! How Do I Solve This?

When you log into Windows 10, usually you get full access to create and modify files on it by default. However, sometimes Windows asks for the administrator permissions for certain tweaks like accessing certain files or deleting them.

Here I shall discuss how you can respond to the problem when you get the message that says, “You’ll need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder”.

What To Do If Windows Says ‘Need Permission To Delete Folder’?

When you get this message, you need to take ownership of the file to make changes to it. If that still does not let you delete the concerned folder, there might be some system files missing or corrupt. Here are some tested solutions on how to delete as administrator.

Solution 1: Change Ownership

If there is a certain file you want to get full access to, you can do so by using this method that utilizes the File Explorer to change the permissions to grant you full access to the file. Follow these steps to do so:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Browse to the file or folder that you want to delete.
3. Right-click on the file and select Properties.
4. Under the Security tab, click on Advanced.

5. In the Advanced Security Settings dialogue box, click on Change next to the Owner name.

6. In the following Select User or Group window, click on Advanced and select Find Now.

7. In the search results that follow, locate your username and click OK.
8. Back in the Advanced Security Settings page, if you are taking ownership of a folder, select the checkbox next to Replace owner on subcontainers and objects.
9. Click Apply and then click OK.

When you take ownership of a certain file, you need to reopen the Properties. Select OK in the dialogue box that prompts this, and open the Properties again.

To make sure you have all the permissions, you need to follow these following steps:

10. Go to the Advanced Security Settings page, and select Add.
11. In the Permission Entry, click on Select a Principal.

12. In the following Select User or Group, click on Advanced and select Find Now.
13. Locate your username in the search results that follow and click OK.

14. Now click on the checkbox next to Full control under the Basic permissions and click OK.

Now you have full access to the folder or file you just changed the permissions to. You can make any changes you want to the file to which you earlier had no access.

To check if you have all the permissions, you can go to the security tab in the Properties and check for permissions listed to your username. Now attempt deleting the concerned folder. You should be able to successfully delete the folder.

You can also add the take ownership option in the right-click context menu of your device. Read our full guide on how to take ownership of files and folders in Windows 10.

Solution 2: Adjust User Account Control Settings

Sometimes, you may require permission to delete folder due to misbehaving UAC settings. This is very easy to resolve, as you just need to adjust the User Account Control settings to solve this.

To change UAC settings, follow these steps:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
2. Type the text: UserAccountControlSettings press Enter.

3. This will bring up the UAC settings. Adjust the slider to Never Notify and select OK.

4. Try deleting the folder again with UAC turned off.
5. Turn on the UAC settings again to the previous value once the application is installed.

This should allow you full access to your system and let you delete the folder, which showed the ‘need permission to delete folder’ error message.

Solution 3: Enable The Built-In Admin Account

The admin account differs from the regular account in the fact that this type of account has all the permissions enabled. This enables the user to perform a variety of functions that would otherwise not be executable, including deleting a folder that displays the ‘folder access denied’ error message.

To enable the built-in admin account, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt. Press Win + R to open the Run dialogue, type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open it in administrator mode.
2. Insert the following command to enable the built-in administrator account:
   net user administrator /active:yes

3. Close the command prompt after the command executes.
4. Try to delete the folder again, now from the admin account. You should be able to delete the folder without any difficulties.
5. You can disable the built-in administrator account any time you want by entering the following command:
   net user administrator /active:no

Solution 4: Delete In Safe Mode

You can also try deleting the file in safe mode if you do not have the permissions to delete files on your computer. This can be especially helpful if you suspect that some third-party application is causing the error on your device.

To boot into safe mode and delete the file, follow these steps:

1. Open the Windows Settings You can use the keyboard shortcut Win + I.
2. Click on Update & Security.
3. In the left pane menu, click on Recovery.
4. Under Advanced Startup click on the Restart now
5. In Recovery, click on Troubleshoot and then go to Advanced options
6. Press the Restart button and on Startup settings press F4 to enable Safe mode.

7. While in Safe Mode, locate the file that you want to delete and try to delete the folder.
8. Restart your computer to exit Safe mode once you have deleted the folder successfully.

If you see the need permission to delete folder error inside safe mode as well, there is some system file that is missing or corrupt, which is causing the error. Follow the next solution to perform an SFC scan which shall solve your error.

Solution 5: Perform SFC Scan

You can check for broken files and fix them using an inbuilt tool for this purpose.

The System File Checker (SFC) is a command-line utility tool in Windows that can check for and repair broken system files from your system. You can use this tool to repair missing or corrupted system files, and hence this can be used to solve this error as well.

• Open a Run dialog by pressing Win + R.
• Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch command Prompt with administrative properties.
• Now type the following command and press Enter to launch a full system scan:
  sfc /scannow
• Leave the command prompt window open.

Depending on your system, the scan may take around 5-20 minutes to complete. Once the scan completes, Restart your device.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it. Now you know how to resolve if you need permission to delete folder. Comment below if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.