Fix: ‘Destination Folder Access Denied’ in Windows 8, 8.1

After you upgraded to a Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 operating system you might get the message “Destination folder access denied” when you are trying to copy a file or folder either from a USB stick, from an external hard drive or just from a simple CD or DVD to your C: partition in your Windows.

The message “Destination folder access denied” usually appears when you don’t have administrator rights to copy a file or folder to the “C:” partition or to the partition your Windows 8 operating system is installed in. In some cases however it will let you copy and paste any file or folder but only in specific paths in your C drive.

Solved: “Destination folder access denied” error for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

If you get this error message in your Windows 8 or 8.1 operating system it is usually followed by the message “You’ll need to provide administrator permission to copy to this folder” but if you click(left click) on the “Continue” box it will paste your data to that specific place.

Seeing that it is quite annoying to click on “Continue” every time you copy/paste your data to the C: partition we will see below how to do a permanent fix on this.

Option one:

1. If you are the only one using the Windows 8/8.1 PC or laptop and you know you are on the administrator account then press and hold the buttons “Windows” and “E”.
2. Click(right click) on the “C:” drive or the partition you are having issues with and select from that menu “Properties”.
3. Click(left click) on the “Security” tab presented in the upper side of the window.
4. Click(left click) on the “Administrators” (computer name and administrators)section.
5. First you will need to verify if you have a check mark for every entry and it is on “Allowed”.
6. If you don’t have every entry on “Allowed” then click(left click) on “Edit” and change the entry to “Allowed”.
7. Click(left click) on “OK” button after you changed all the entries to “allowed”
8. Click(left click) again on “OK” in the other window you had opened.
9. Reboot the Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 PC.
10. See if you have the same message appearing after the reboot .

Option two:

1. Click(right click) on the “C:” drive or the partition you are having issues with and select from that menu “Properties”.
2. Click(left click) on the “Security” tab presented in the upper side of the window.
3. Click(left click) on the “Advanced” button presented in the window.
4. You will have there a “Permissions” tab in the upper side of the window you opened, open it.
5. Click on “Administrators” in the “Permissions” tab and choose from there the feature called “Change Permissions”.
6. You have there a “Basic permissions” area, verify that all of them are checked.
7. You have there a drop down menu that says “Applies to”, in this drop down menu you will have to make sure that the feature “This folder, subfolder and files” is selected.
8. Click(left click) on “OK”.
9. Click(left click) on “OK” again in the other window.
10. Click(left click) on “Apply” in the last window.
11. Reboot the Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 PC or laptop and verify if you can copy or paste the files or folders now.

So there it is, two methods on how to fix the “destination folder access denied” issue on Windows 8 or 8.1. Now you can use your device freely without any limitations .