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Permissions lost when copying/moving files and folders

Karla Marsh
WAFS and CDP - DEPRECATED

THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE APPLIES TO:

  • WAFS/CDP (all versions)
SYMPTOM

When you drag files from one folder to another with different permissions, the permissions from the previous folder follow the file. Then, when someone tries to open the file in the new folder, they do not have permission to open the file.

RESOLUTION

This has nothing to do with WAFS/CDP; it is the built in Windows behavior for NTFS volumes. When you copy or move a file or folder on an NTFS volume, how Windows Explorer handles the permissions on the object varies, depending on whether the object is copied or moved within the same NTFS volume or to a different volume. When moving files, Windows keeps the original file permissions if you are moving files to a location within the same volume. If you copy and paste or move a file to a different volume, it will be assigned the permissions of the destination folder.

Microsoft has a fix for this situation. (This is a per-system fix.)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310316

You can modify how Windows Explorer handles permissions when objects are copied or moved to another NTFS volume. When you copy or move an object to another volume, the object inherits the permissions of its new folder. However, if you want to modify this behavior to preserve the original permissions, modify the registry as follows.

  1. Open the Registry Editor (click Start > Run, type regedit, then press ENTER).

  2. Locate the following registry key:

  3. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

  4. With the key selected, on the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:

    Value name: ForceCopyAclwithFile

    Data type: DWORD

    Value data: 1

  5. Exit the Registry Editor.

Details
Last Modified: 12 Years Ago
Last Modified By: GlobalSCAPE 5
Type: HOWTO
Rated 2 stars based on 66 votes.
Article has been viewed 75K times.
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