When trying to delete old videos or edit your recent pictures uploaded from your camcorder's memory card, you might be obstructed by unexpected error 0xC00D3E8E: The property is read-only. The problem is tricky as it restrains any property changes you would want to apply to the video or multimedia files.
To free the mp4 files or the MOV files from the error, let’s first understand the error and the causes of the error.
What is 0xC00D3E8E read-only error?
0xC00D3E8E error is associated with multimedia files like mp3, mp4, mov video files. It occurs when modifying, deleting, or renaming a specific video file in your library. The error screen shown above is displayed because of failure to apply the changes or delete the file. Hence, the media created tab in the properties of the multimedia file has been changed due to various causes.
What are the Causes of the 0xC00D3E8E read-only Windows 10 Error?
There are various causes for this; the read-only error on a Windows PC can be listed as follows:
- Improper Windows 10 update or lost ownership of the file.
- This error occurs when you import multimedia files from a device like your phone/ camcorder or an app. Hence, the file date and media properties are passed on from the device's root directory, which fails to be in accordance with Windows. Hence the error.
- It might also be that you have recently upgraded to Windows 10, and during the process, the file properties have not been accounted for in the newly assigned file system. Hence, the changes to the original files cannot be applied. For this case, you can always roll back to older version of Windows.
- When you have a corrupt file system. File system which watches over the file hierarchy and the organization of files in the computer. Hence when you save files in a specific location the computer’s operating system fails to locate the source file and make changes to it.
- If the file explorer subroutine is interrupted due to operational failure or by a third party application. When you try to open a file in the file explorer the operating system feeds the file explorer with the file specific information and the address, if this communication is interrupted the read only Windows 10 bug occurs.
- There can also be a malware infection on the system, which can corrupt the file and make the file resilient to changes.
Different ways to fix read-only errors in Windows for mp3/mp4 files:
Below presented are different ways to fix the 0xC00D3E8E error depending upon the problem:
Method 1: Getting Back the Ownership of the File
- Right-click on the file that is giving you the error.
- Select properties and go to the security tab.
- Under the security tab, select advanced and look for the owner's name.
- If the name shows any other name than yours, click on change, type in your username, and select it from the list.
- From the user account settings, gain full access and save the settings.
Method 2: End and restart explore.exe in the Task Manager
- When you restart explorer.exe, the file explorer will reset all the operating system parameters initially loaded.
- Hence, the operating system will get a fresh look at the existing files, and any bugs persisting with the media file information, including folder permissions, will consequentially reset.
- To restart File Explorer, open task manager.
- Click on the details tab on the top and find explorer.exe to right-click on it.
- Select the end task option from the right-click options.
- Now press ctrl+alt+del to open the task manager again and select the file option in the top left corner.
- Click on a new task, type in explorer.exe in the open-label box displayed, and click ok.
- This will restart the Windows Explorer. If this does not solve the error, try the next solution below.
Method 3: Restart the Computer
- A simple computer restart can sometimes fix the operational interruptions.
- Hence, the operating system starts working as designed; however, if you don’t see the files or photos on the computer, you can recover lost photos from the SD card of the source camera. Follow the same link for videos, too.
Method 4: Use CHKDSK to check for any partitioning errors or SFC scan to repair missing or corrupt video files
- The chkdsk command in the command prompt checks the integrity of a drive and returns the errors that have been found. You can specify the drive you want to look for errors by using the suffix, the alphabet specified for the drive. Example: chkdsk C, which finds the errors in C drive.
- After finding the errors, you can choose from [/C] [/I] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] commands for respective actions. Example: [/F] fixes the error on the disk.
- Open the command prompt as administrator, type in the command sfc/scannow, and hit enter
- This command will enable the debugger to find, scan, and repair the corrupted files on the computer.
- Hence, these two commands will eliminate most of the errors on the video files that are not structurally intact. Once the found errors are fixed, you can change and apply properties to all the files.
- However, if the files are structurally intact and the corruptions are not repaired, you can use Remo Repair Mov or Remo Repair AVI according to the multimedia files.
- Sometimes, when the sfc/scannow command is used, some of your pictures or files are disregarded and deleted due to severe corruption.
- Remo Recover can recover your deleted videos and repair the recovered mp4 files.
Useful link: click here to learn more about how to repair corrupted files using SFC/scannow and DISM commands.
Method 5: Use Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) Command
- DISM command utility is a more advanced command than sfc/scannow. If the sfc/scannow cannot find any reference files needed to repair the image, DISM will use the files from the original Windows media to fix corruptions.
- Connect the original Windows USB/DVD media to the computer
- Open the command prompt in admin mode and enter DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth in the command line utility.
- After an estimated time of twenty minutes, the existing image on the hard drive is corruption-free.
- Now, the File ceases to be read-only.
Note: Ensure you have made a backup or a restore point to avoid losing any videos or images. If you fail to do so and if the memory card inserted in the device doesn’t contain the required media, you can recover your deleted data from the memory card using a trusted recovery tool.
Method 6: System Restore in Safe Mode
- Safe mode only allows trusted applications and startup programs that come built-in with the Windows operating system.
- Therefore, log into safe mode to see if third-party applications or malware affect the video file information.
- Restore the computer to a specific date, which will revert the changes to the video files. This will also remove the media you have added from an external memory card or SD card.
All the above-mentioned solutions are briefly addressed, keeping in mind every possible reason for 0xC00D3E8E error to occur.
To avoid any such problems in the future, here are a few recommendations:
It is recommended not to transfer any media through an app or a third-party interface, which will alter the media-created tab information, making the file read-only.
Whenever you suspect any peculiarity in file access operations, perform a clean boot to check which third-party application is the cause of the problem.
Lastly, if all the solutions fail, you can reinstall the operating system, putting a fresh Windows copy on the hard drive. All old data can be recovered after the new Windows OS installation.
