Unlocking a File Before Renaming It September 8, 2021May 23, 2022 Raza Ali Kazmi Rename Data, Solutions, Windows Windows does not allow users to relocate, rename, or delete locked files. If you’re trying to do any of these, you will most likely see one of these errors: Product Spotlight: Use Sorcim’s Easy Files Renamer to rename & remove spaces in filenames. EFR follows Google Software Principles. It will not ask you to provide email address to download the software. There was a problem renaming this file. You’ll need permission to perform this operation. You require permission from the computer’s administrator to make changes to this folder. This action can’t be completed because this file is open in <Application Name>. Close the file and try again. This action can’t be completed because the folder or a file it contains is open in another program Let’s look into a few possibilities. 1. Another App is Using the File Make sure that the file is not opened anywhere else. If you see an Application’s name within the error message, look for that application on the System Tray, right-click on it, and select Exit. If you are not able to directly find an application that is using your file, you can also use Process Explorer to check for it. Once you have downloaded and installed the tool, open it up. a) Click on File. b) Go to Find A Handle or DLL. c) Type in the name of the locked file that you’re trying to rename. d) Hit the Search button. Now you will be able to see a list of processes or programs that are using the locked file. e) Select your file and press the Delete key in order to terminate the program/process. 2. Stop 3rd Party Startup Applications From Using Your File Apart from your antivirus software, you should close all third-party startup applications. To do so, head to your Task Manager. a) Click on More Details. b) Head to the Startup tab. c) Right-click on the app that you wish to disable. d) Click on Disable. e) Restart your computer to apply the changes. 3. File Locked by Anti-Virus Software If the above possibilities did not fit your case, it might be possible that the file is locked by Antivirus software. To overcome this, you can temporarily disable your antivirus program or exclude the relevant file from real-time protection. If you use AVG Antivirus, you can disable it by heading to the taskbar and right-clicking on its system tray icon to set the Protection to OFF. Alternatively, you can double-click on AVG’s icon. Open the Menu and then head to Settings. From there, open the Exceptions tab. Click on Add Exception. Now, you can add the file that you were trying to unlock. 4. File Is a Protected Operating System File If you are unable to rename a file, it is possible that you are trying to unlock a protected OS file. In this case, it is advised that you do not try to unlock or rename such a file. 5. File is Read-Only You can also try to remove the read-only attribute of the file. To do so: a) Right-click on your file and go to the Properties. b) Under the General section, untick the Read-only property checkbox. c) Click on OK. 6. Permission Issues If there are multiple users for your computer, it is possible that you might not have the necessary permissions to access or modify the relevant file. This could happen because the file might have been originally created by another user. To grant the required permissions: a) Sign in to your computer with the original user’s credentials. b) After signing in, head to the file and right-click on it and go to Properties. c) Go to the Security tab. d) Click on Advanced. e) Under the Permissions section, double-click on the user account through which you wanted to rename your file. f) Select the checkbox for the Full control option to give the user full access. g) Click on Close and then OK twice. 7. Corrupted File If none of the above possibilities seem to be valid in your case, it is possible that your file is simply corrupted. There could be many reasons for it. For example, maybe it was last saved with an invalid extension or an invalid character. To look for bad sectors present in your hard drive, you can use System File Checker. a) Open the System File Checker on your Desktop. b) Right-click on the disk partition that contains your file (for eg; D:\). c) Go to Properties. d) Head to Tools, followed by Check. e) Click on Scan Drive and follow the instructions to run a detailed scan. 8. Malware It is also possible that your computer is infected by a virus or malware. To overcome this, you should run a scan using any reliable antivirus tool. 9. Use Third-Party Tool to Rename Files with One-Click If you are having difficulty renaming files, manually troubleshooting and identifying the problem for each file would be a tiresome task. Instead of wasting hours, you can simply use Easy File Renamer, a secure, batch renaming tool. The tool allows users to automatically rename files using several renaming patterns for example, add text, remove text, replace text, add suffix, add prefix, add numbering, swap characters, etc. You can even apply more than one pattern. a) Download and install Easy File Renamer. b) Add files or folders into the tool using the Add Files button. c) Select one or more renaming rules from the drop-down menu given on the left-hand side. d) Once you are satisfied with the previews of new filenames, hit the Rename button to apply the final changes.