[c#] Why is access to the path denied?

I am having a problem where I am trying to delete my file but I get an exception.

if (result == "Success")
{
     if (FileUpload.HasFile)
     {
         try
         {
              File.Delete(Request.PhysicalApplicationPath + app_settings.login_images + txtUploadStatus.Text);
              string filename = Path.GetFileName(btnFileUpload.FileName);
              btnFileUpload.SaveAs(Request.PhysicalApplicationPath + app_settings.login_images + filename);
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
               Message(ex.ToString());
         }
      }
}

Also I should note that the folder I am trying to delete from has full control to network services.

The full exception message is:

System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'C:\Users\gowdyn\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\hybrid\hybrid\temp_loginimages\enviromental.jpg' is denied. at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath) at System.IO.File.Delete(String path) at hybrid.User_Controls.Imgloader_Add_Edit_Tbl.btnUpdate_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\gowdyn\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\hybrid\hybrid\User_Controls\Imgloader_Add_Edit_Tbl.ascx.cs:line 242

Any ideas?

You need to modify the privileges of the folder you're trying to delete from/save to. Right-click on the containing folder and use the Security tab to permit modify rights for the user your application runs under.

Be aware that if you are trying to reach a shared folder path from your code, you dont only need to give the proper permissions to the physicial folder thru the security tab. You also need to "share" the folder with the corresponding app pool user thru the Share Tab

I also ran into this post as dealing with the same issue. Looks like the file is in use and hence not able to write to it. Though not able to figure it out, which process is using it. Signed out the other user who was logged in in that box, dont see any users who is holding it. Any quick tips regarding on how to find the same.

Thanks, Lakshay (developer)

When a user tries to connect to your Web site, IIS assigns the connection to the IUSER_ComputerName account, where ComputerName is the name of the server on which IIS is running. By default, the IUSER_ComputerName account is a member of the Guests group. This group has security restrictions. Try to grand access to IUSER_ComputerName to that folder

Here is very good described answer about IIS security

Hope this helps

I got this error and solved it in just a moment. Don't know why all of my folders are read-only,I cancelled the read-only and apply it. However, it is still read-only. So I moved the file into the root folder, it works - so weird.

To solve this problem, I follow the Scot Hanselman approach at Debugging System.UnauthorizedAccessException (often followed by: Access to the path is denied) article, the code with example is bellow:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var path = "c:\\temp\\notfound.txt";
        try
        {
            File.Delete(path);
        }
        catch (UnauthorizedAccessException)
        {
            FileAttributes attributes = File.GetAttributes(path);
            if ((attributes & FileAttributes.ReadOnly) == FileAttributes.ReadOnly)
            {
                attributes &= ~FileAttributes.ReadOnly;
                File.SetAttributes(path, attributes);
                File.Delete(path);
            }
            else
            {
                throw;
            }
        }
    }
}

If you're using BitDefender there's a good chance its Safe Files feature blocked your operation. This is a form of Ransomware protection that comes with some of its more advanced versions.

Make sure to grant your application access in BitDefender and try again.

Some more details can be found in this BitDefender support page.

I have found that this error can occur in DESIGN MODE as opposed to ? execution mode... If you are doing something such as creating a class member which requires access to an .INI or .HTM file (configuration file, help file) you might want to NOT initialize the item in the declaration, but initialize it later in FORM_Load() etc... When you DO initialize... Use a guard IF statement:

    /// <summary>FORM: BasicApp - Load</summary>
    private void BasicApp_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Setup Main Form Caption with App Name and Config Control Info
        if (!DesignMode)
        {
            m_Globals = new Globals();
            Text = TGG.GetApplicationConfigInfo();
        }
    }

This will keep the MSVS Designer from trying to create an INI or HTM file when you are in design mode.

For those trying to make a UWP (Universal Windows) application, file permissions are much more restricted, and in general is deny by default. It also supersedes the system user permissions. You will basically only have access to files in either

• Your install location
• Your AppData location
• Files selected through the File or Folder picker
• Locations requested in your App Manifest

You can read more here for details => https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/files/file-access-permissions

I have also faced this issue when my window service started throwing the exception

System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path "C:\\Order\\Media
44aa4857-3bac-4a18-a307-820450361662.mp4" is denied.

So as a solution, I checked the user account associated with my service, as shown in below screen capture

So in my case it was NETWORK SERVICE

And then went to the folder properties to check if the associated user account also exists under their permission tab. It was missing in my case and when I added it and it fixed my issue.

For more information please check the below screen capture

If this is an IIS website that is having the problem, check the Identity property of the advanced settings for the application pool that the site or application uses. You may find that it is set to ApplicationPoolIdentity, and in that case then this is the user that will have to have access to the path.

Or you can go old style and simply set the Identity to Network Service, and give the Network Service user access to the path.

I also had the problem, hence me stumbling on this post. I added the following line of code before and after a Copy / Delete.

Delete

File.SetAttributes(file, FileAttributes.Normal);
File.Delete(file);

Copy

File.Copy(file, dest, true);
File.SetAttributes(dest, FileAttributes.Normal);

I was trying to use System.IO.File.OpenWrite(path)

and it did not work because I was only passing OpenWrite() a path to a directory, but it requires a path all the way to the file you want to write. So a full path including the filename.extension at the end needs to be passed into OpenWrite to avoid UnauthorizedAccessException

Check your files properties. If the read-only is checked, uncheck it. This was my personal issue with the UnauthorizedAccessException.

First just check the path if the colon(:) character is missing or not after the drive letter. If colon is not missing then you can check if access/write permission is granted for that path. I had the same issue and i was only missing the colon, permission and everything else was fine.

C:\folderpath

will work fine but,

C\folderpath .........(missing colon)

will give you access denial error.

I got the error because I didn't realize that the destination should be a file. I had a folder as the second parameter (which works in cmd). and I got Unhandled Exception: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path is denied. because C# File.Move wants a file there, not just for the first parameter, but for the second too, and so if you put a directory as second parameter, it's trying to write a file like c:\crp when you have a directory called c:\crp.

this would be incorrect File.Move(args[0],"c:\\crp");

So, this would be correct File.Move(args[0],"c:\\crp\\a.a");

The same goes for File.Copy

In my case it was my AVG anti-virus that triggered the exception.

I added my VS Projects directory to the "Allowed" list. And I had to add the executable to the AVG exceptions list after I copied the .exe to my App directory.

The exception that is thrown when the operating system denies access because of an I/O error or a specific type of security error.

I hit the same thing. Check to ensure that the file is NOT HIDDEN.

According to File.Delete Method...

An UnauthorizedAccessException means one of 4 things:

• The caller does not have the required permission.
• The file is an executable file that is in use.
• Path is a directory.
• Path specified a read-only file.

same issue for me too, I was pointing the folder instead of file.

so make sure in path, give path+filename

System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes("path", bytearray);

In my particular case I was repeatedly creating and deleting 10000 folders. It seems to me that the problem was in that although the method Directory.Delete(path, true) returns, the underling OS mechanism may still be deleting the files from the disk. And when I am starting to create new folders immediately after deletion of old ones, some of them are still locked because they are not completely deleted yet. And I am getting System.UnauthorizedAccessException: "Access to the path is denied".

Using Thread.Sleep(5000) after Directory.Delete(path, true) solves that problem. I absolutely agree that this is not safe, and I am not encouraging anyone to use it. I would love to here a better approach to solve this problem to improve my answer. Now I am just giving an idea why this exception may happen.

class Program
{
    private static int numFolders = 10000;
    private static string rootDirectory = "C:\\1";

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        if (Directory.Exists(rootDirectory))
        {
            Directory.Delete(rootDirectory, true);
            Thread.Sleep(5000);
        }

        Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        CreateFolder();
        long time = sw.ElapsedMilliseconds;

        Console.WriteLine(time);
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static void CreateFolder()
    {
        var one = Directory.CreateDirectory(rootDirectory);

        for (int i = 1; i <= numFolders; i++)
        {
            one.CreateSubdirectory(i.ToString());
        }
    }
}

I was facing this error because

Sometimes when I Combine the path with File Name and FileName = ""

It become Path Directory not a file which is a problem as mentioned above

so you must check for FileName like this

if(itemUri!="")
        File.Delete(Path.Combine(RemoteDirectoryPath, itemUri));

I had the exact error when deleting a file. It was a Windows Service running under a Service Account which was unable to delete a .pdf document from a Shared Folder even though it had Full Control of the folder.

What worked for me was navigating to the Security tab of the Shared Folder > Advanced > Share > Add.

I then added the service account to the administrators group, applied the changes and the service account was then able to perform all operations on all files within that folder.

I had this error thrown when I tried to rename a folder very rapidly after it had been either moved or created.

A simple System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500); solved it:

void RenameFile(string from, string to)
{
   try
   {   
      System.IO.File.Move(from, to)      
   }   
   catch 
   {  
       System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);      
       RenameFile(from, to);      
   }   
}

I too faced the same problem when trying to do this after deployment at server:

dirPath = Server.MapPath(".") + "\\website\\" + strUserName;
if (!Directory.Exists(dirPath))
{
    DirectoryInfo DI = Directory.CreateDirectory(dirPath);
}
string filePath = Server.MapPath(".") + "\\Website\\default.aspx";
File.Copy(filePath, dirPath + "\\default.aspx", true);
File.SetAttributes(dirPath + "\\default.aspx", FileAttributes.Normal);

I granted permission in IIS to other group including administrator and my problem got solved.

This is an old issue, but I ran into it while searching. Turns out that I was missing the actual filename component in the save path for SaveAs...

string uploadPath = Server.MapPath("~/uploads");
file.SaveAs(uploadPath); // BAD
file.SaveAs(Path.Combine(uploadPath, file.FileName)); // GOOD

An UnauthorizedAccessException exception is thrown when the operating system denies access because of an I/O error or a security error.

If you are attempting to access a file or registry key, make sure it is not read-only.

Right click on Visual studio and click Run as Administrator

In my case the problem was Norton. My in-house program doesn't have the proper digital signature and when it tried to delete a file it gave the UnauthorizedAccessException.

If it give you a notification, you can handle it from there. In my case it didn't give a notification that I noticed. So here's how to keep Norton from blocking the program.

1. Open Norton
2. Click the down arrow
3. Click History
4. Find activity by program
5. Click More Options
6. Click Exclude Process

I had the same problem on a newly moved website on a shared server. Solved through the web host panel (DotNetPanel) setting true the "allow write permissions". So if you are in a shared server before reviewing all code worth taking a look at the server configuration and could save you a lot of time.