Windows 11: You don't have permission to save in this location. Contact the administrator to obtain permission. Would you like to save in documents folder instead?

Question

This thing have been preventing me from making my PowerPoint presentation for the whole night and it just couldn't be helped. There's nothing wrong with my user permissions, I have literally tried everything people suggest here and it still doesn't work. There's no way to get the file off read-only status either. It's just impossible to do anything and I am not happy with 7 hours of work gone for it not being able to save. Can you please help me with this?

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.   

I understand that you are facing issues in saving files

In order to get clarity and to assist you accordingly, please reply with the answers to the questions below:

• Do you use any non-Microsoft anti-virus software?
• Are you facing issues only for saving PowerPoint documents?
• In which location does it ask for administrator permissions?
• What happens when you save in Documents folder instead?
• Have you logged in as an administrator?
• Are you aware of any recent changes on the PC prior to this issue?

Meanwhile, I would suggest you to follow the steps mentioned below:

Try running PowerPoint as an administrator, right click on the program, select Run as administrator and check if the issue persists:

Method 1: Allow full control

1. Right click on the folder which has issues in saving files and go to Properties
2. Under Security tab, click on Edit to change permissions
3. Select the administrator user from Group or user names section
4. Put a tick mark to on Allow for Full Control
5. Allow full control to other users and accounts on PC as well
6. Click on Apply and then OK

---

Method 2: Change permissions

1. Right click the folder and go to the Properties window
2. Navigate to Security tab
3. Click on Advanced
4. In Owner section, click on Change
5. Click on Advanced >Find Now> Find your username in search results >OK
6. Click OK again for the selected username
7. Check the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects box> Apply> Yes> OK
8. Click OK on advanced security settings windows
9. Click on Advanced again> Change permissions> Enable inheritance
10. To add a new object, click on Select a principal and then follow step 5 and step 6
11. Go to Show advanced permissions to enable more permissions> OK

---

---

Method 3: Disable User Account Control

1. Search and open Change User Account Control Settings from Windows search box
2. On the left side, move the slider to Never notify and click on OK

---

Let us know how it goes, we would be glad to help you further

Vineet Kumar Microsoft Community - Moderator

Answer 2

Same problem with Adobe Lightroom, Premiere, Davinci,... only solution is running app as Administrator but thisi is not solution because i cant draganddrop files from explorer to bin, timeline,...

Answer 3

If it helps - I found it was the AVG Antivirus interfering - adding the app that could not save files to the 'Allowed' of the Blocked and Allowed Apps list fixed my problem.

Answer 4

Hi.

I have the same problem using Word, or trying to save a PDF document after using the Print / save as PDF.

Whatever i create or change is now not letting me save it.

This started to happen after your new windows 11 update. and it is VERY ANOYING to say the least.....

I tried your Method 1: but the selection is already on full control. only change will be Denied.

I dont see how to use Method 2. My user name has not changed, I am using Administrator.

I tried Method 3 and it does not fix the problem.

The only location I can save is now the One Drive. when it is saved there I can save anywhere on the computer without the bug "you dont have permission"

Please advise as One drive require space and payment.

Answer 5

Sometimes, we may overthink the problem.

When I first had this error message trying to save a file to the desktop, I searched for answers and none of them worked for me to realize later that I was trying to save to the wrong desktop (C:\Users\default) instead of (C:\Users\my user profile).

I am not sure how did this desktop got pinned to the quick access, but it got me confused for a while.