# Read-Only attribute **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519 "2000-06-15T21:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/1 "2000-06-15T21:53:22Z")
Okay, my neighbour and my vice-principal have both come to me with this problem: They try to open an important file that they have saved, and they get a warning message that says the file is read only. What’s the deal, and how do I get rid of this? Peace. ---
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/2 "2000-06-15T21:56:06Z")
And don’t tell me to change it in the properties box. It’s not checked as a read only file, and checking and unchecking it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/3 "2000-06-15T22:03:39Z")
Word, Excel and other documents can be set with a read-only attribute when you save the document. To get around this do a ‘Save As’ and give the document another name (add a ‘1’ to the end or something). Now it’s your document and you can do as you please. Let me know if you want an explanation of why that Read-Only attribute is set. ---
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/4 "2000-06-15T22:06:03Z")
The problem is that it is already saved, and I cannot open it. I’m going to try to rename it in windows explorer… I can’t copy it either… does this mean that the file is corrupted? Is there some way to recover the data? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/5 "2000-06-15T22:29:44Z")
It depends on what type of file it is. Access creates an .ldb file when you open it. It’s supposed to allow two people to work on the file, but it can be screwy. Look for any files with an .ldb extension and delete them. Word usually saves a file with the filename beginning with a ~$. These also can be deleted. Other times, the problem is due to file corruption and there isn’t a lot you can do except run Norton Utilities and hope. ---
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/6 "2000-06-15T22:31:01Z")
They’re both .xls files. Please help. This is really important to her. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/7 "2000-06-15T22:34:40Z")
Win 95/98/00/NT? Excel 95/97? What happens when she clicks “OK” when told the file is read only? Are you trying to fix it on her machine, or did she make you a copy? Any other details you can think of that might be relevent. ---
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/8 "2000-06-15T22:40:59Z")
It’s excel 2000, on win 98. I have tried on her laptop, as well as on mine. The file she has on her harddrive is quite stunted (only two pages or so). THe on on the floppy says it’s 125 k, but I get this message: “THe file you are trying to access is read only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server you are trying to acess is not responding.” What I wanna know is if it’s READ-only, why can’t I at least read it? ---
**Author:** ![Koffing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@Koffing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koffing)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/9 "2000-06-15T22:55:35Z")
Was the file sent as an attachment? ---
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/10 "2000-06-15T22:59:22Z")
No, she created it in Excel for her work. ---
**Author:** ![Koffing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@Koffing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koffing)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/11 "2000-06-15T23:12:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > No, she created it in Excel for her work. > \*\* Do you have any other spreadsheet software on the machine? If so, try opening it in that other program. ---
**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/12 "2000-06-15T23:20:13Z")
Could an instance of Excel still be using the file? Did Excel hang? You should be able to reboot the machine and then try accessing the file. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/13 "2000-06-15T23:20:51Z")
First, visit the MSDOS prompt, start -programs-msdos prompt. Make the window big if you can. Find the file. Lets say it’s called: myfile.xls Type: attrib -R myfile.xls That should take out the read only part. Any other questions about Attrib, type: attrib/? ---
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/14 "2000-06-15T23:37:34Z")
Sorry handy, that didn’t work. I suppose that that is the same thing as going into the properties box and unclicking the read-only check-box. Well, I tried that, and it wasn’t checked. Sorry. **Anybody else?** ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/15 "2000-06-16T00:17:42Z")
Didn’t you say this is on a floppy? Is there another copy at her work that she might get access to? Have you checked the floppy with scandisk? Sometimes error messages aren’t completely accurate (understatement of the day), maybe it’s just a read error. What happens when you try to copy the file? What error do you get? It is sounding like a bad diskette to me. Are both files on the same diskette? Jim ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2000, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/16 "2000-06-16T00:40:31Z")
Hmmm…if you can’t even _copy_ the file off the floppy it with explorer it is quite possible/likely the file is corrupted… however, hope springs eternal so let’s put on our rhinocerous hide gloves and trudge forward. 1: Go to _another_ machine with a floppy drive and a useful version of Excel. Preferably MS Office 2000 version. 2: Make sure the read/write tab on the floppy disk itself is set to enable the disk to be written to and is not write protected. 3: Try to pull up the file. If it still gives you the “read only” error message and doesn’t let you go further check the net. If memory serves there are some utilities that will recover (to the extent possible)info from corrupted Excel files. MS Office also sometimes has these little hidden utilties in sub-directories on the install CD. Might be worth checking. Good Luck! ---
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2000, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-only-attribute/22519/17 "2000-06-16T00:52:34Z")
I hate it when the answer is so completely obvious. I just ran scandisk. It’s damaged. The file was lost. Thanks for your help though guys. I luvs ya.