All dropbox files getting marked read-only

[julran55]

I've been using dropbox for a few years now without issue. I have it on my pc, ipad & android phone. My primary device is my ipad.  Here lately I've been having problems when I go to edit files, I am forced to save a copy because it can't save changes... except, once the copy is saved I can't save changes to it, I have to make another copy.  If I look at properties on my pc the files are marked read-only.  I removed that mark and applied changes but then thought I should check others... all files were read-only in that folder, so checked further... the properties for my entire dropbox were read-only!  So, yesterday removed the read-only setting and hit applied it to all the folders & files in my dropbox which seemed to fix the problem yesterday but this morning again the read-only is checked again on my entire dropbox folder...  Please help!  It takes awhile to apply the change to the 500g of files I have.

[Karina]

Hey there @julran55, sorry about the slight delay in response and welcome to our Forum! 😊
 

This is interesting - Could you by any chance check other files on your computer (not currently in your Dropbox), and see if their properties have also being changed to “Read-Only” without your doing? 

Is this only happening with the files within your Dropbox Folder? Normally, going into the file and modifying the properties to give yourself "Full Control" over "Read-Only",  this changes should stay in effect. 

Did you recently update your OS or carry out any updates on your device by any chance? 

Feel free to get back to me with any additional info you think would be useful to share, and I'll be happy to help out it any way I can. Looking forward to hearing from you again! 

Happy Friday! 

 

[AllanLangille]

My problem is similar... DROPBOX "ECEL 365" DOCUMENTS BECOME "READ ONLY" WHEN COPIED (EITHER MANUALLY OR VIA DROPSYNC) TO MY ANDROID SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S3. I CAN EDIT AND SAVE THE DROPBOX VERSION BUT THE COPIED ONE RESIDENT ON MY TABLET IS READ ONLY. 

[Gutchgal]

I have the same issue. All Word files. Any folder - EVERY TIME. 

[Lusil]

Hey there @Gutchgal, 

Thanks for checking in with us. Let's see what we can do here. 

As a first step, could you please check out @Walter's reply on this thread and see if that does the trick for you?

Let me know how it goes!

[angsaskois]

This problem hit me this morning on my Windows 10 system.  A file that I modify and save every morning would not save. Just prior to this my system locked up while trying to save this file. I had to do a hard power down and start. After this my system unlocked and Open Office Calc did a successful recovery of the file after the restart.  But I could no longer save the file.  I had to save it to a local copy.  I checked permissions  and found ../owner/dropbox had read-only permission.  My account is an administrator so I removed the read-only attribute for the folder and its contents and applied the change.  An immediate check showed that the read-only attribute had been reset.  The system freeze-up may have been related to a scan by my "Genie Timeline" backup system and may be unrelated to the problem.  I did check my copy and some other recently saved files and the don't show this problem.  As to whether other directories or files show this problem, that is really a needle-in-a-haystack question.  I think the fact that a number of people are having this problem with dropbox indicates some dropbox involvement.  

[angsaskois]

OOPS.  It looks like my problem was a lockfile that was not cleared after my hard power down.  Once I cleared it.  I could save again. This may be a Calc problem as the recovery should have cleared the file.

[DanWalters]

What is a lock file how do I clear it? I am having the same problem with my Samsung phone and tablet. when opening in MS word the documents say read only and I cannot edit them. on my windows 10 pc I noticed the read only check box, I uncheck it, come out and back in and its rechecked itself. I have removed my antivirus this didn't work, tried uninstalling and reinstalling Dropbox, still didn't work

This was never a problem in the past its happened in the last few weeks and as far as I know I haven't made any changes. please anyone send some helpful advice my way.

Dan

[Walter]

Hi @DanWalters; thanks for joining this discussion and sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you please let me know if you're using our mobile app on your mobile devices or if  you're only accessing your files through a web browser?

If you could also send us a screenshot of  the exact error you're getting, it'd be very helpful, Dan!

[LBPCloud]

My PC is doing the same thing... Not letting me delete a folder or file (from my pc folders) because it's read only. If I delete the files/folders in dropbox online it works for a second but it appears again because of the permission issue in deleting files from my pc. I changed the attributes on the whole folder and all files within to not have the read-only box ticked and it worked for a moment but changes itself back to read-only and the cycle continues.