Windows error 5: Access is denied

[dschnit1]

Running Calibre 3.9 on Windows 10 Pro. Attempt to add a book to my Calibre library. Get error message as seen in title of thread. Am logged in to Administrator account. Opened Calibre as "Run as administrator". Any thoughts?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dschnit1

Running Calibre 3.9 on Windows 10 Pro. Attempt to add a book to my Calibre library. Get error message as seen in title of thread. Am logged in to Administrator account. Opened Calibre as "Run as administrator". Any thoughts?

Try the suggestions on the Calibre Help (site) FAQ.
Select Help inside Calibre

[dschnit1]

Nothing in the FAQ Permissions Denied section applies to my situation.

[dschnit1]

If it's any help, here are the error details:

calibre, version 3.9.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>WindowsError</b>:[Error 5] Access is denied

calibre 3.9 embedded-python: True is64bit: False
Windows-10-10.0.15063-SP0 Windows ('32bit', 'WindowsPE')
32bit process running on 64bit windows
('Windows', '10', '10.0.15063')
Python 2.7.12+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.15063', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeDRM (6, 2, 1) && Manage Series (1, 2, 8) && FictionDB (1, 0, 10) && Barnes & Noble (1, 2, 14) && Goodreads (1, 1, 12) && Fantastic Fiction (1, 2, 0) && Goodreads Sync (1, 10, 1) && DOC Input (1, 0, 1) && Fantastic Fiction Adults (1, 0, 4)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\actions\add.py", line 424, in add_books
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\win_file_dialogs.py", line 252, in choose_files
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\win_file_dialogs.py", line 185, in run_file_dialog
File "subprocess.py", line 711, in __init__
File "subprocess.py", line 959, in _execute_child
WindowsError: [Error 5] Access is denied

[BetterRed]

@dschnit1 - Is the file your trying to add Blocked - look in file properties



Also check FAQ section - calibre freezes/crashes occasionally? sometime problems manifest themselves in mysterious ways.

I see you're using 32bit calibre on a 64bit Windows, try installing the 64 bit version - you can have both installed and they will use the same settings and libraries

Also, Windows error 5 Access denied is sometimes a sign of the presence malicious software - run some stand alone malware scanners.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Something on your system, most likely an antivirus program is preventing calibre from alunching the helper process it uses to display file dialogs. You can work around it by telling calibre not to use native file dialogs by setting the environment variable CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_FILEDIALOGS as described here: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cus...ment-variables

[dschnit1]

Problem is apparently fixed. I ran 2 different malware finder/cleaners, each of which found something to delete. Then I deleted the last program I installed (WinPatrol Ransomeware monitor). Then, after a reboot, everything was back to normal. Thanks to everyone who offered help to me.

[AlbertLotito]

After a lot of debugging, it turns out that the solution is absurdly simple.

Ensure that the entire "calibre library" folder tree is not read-only.

In windows:

Calibre Portable\Calibre Library>attrib -r *.* /d /s

In other words: open a cmd prompt.
go to your Calibre Library folder
Type attrib -r *.* /d /s
Attrib: Set attributes
-r: Turn or Read-only
/s: do subfolders
/d: Processes directories as well.

Good luck.

[Divingduck]

Originally Posted by AlbertLotito

After a lot of debugging,

Jesus, you did a quite huge debug action.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by AlbertLotito

After a lot of debugging, it turns out that the solution is absurdly simple.

Originally Posted by Divingduck

Jesus, you did a quite huge debug action.

I'd be more interested in finding out how his calibre directory tree got marked as read-only. The only time I've seen something similar was a few years back when a co-worker used a writable DVD to transfer his library to a new computer.

[Divingduck]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I'd be more interested in finding out how his calibre directory tree got marked as read-only.

I saw different situations so fare.
One root cause was when a AV software blocks a file temporary during an update while it is scanning all involved files. This usually goes in hand with an installation process but it can fail if the system get blocked in his processes. I had seen this so far only two times with calibre during an update while calibre was running in back ground (my fault). The calibre program folder was blocked with system authority. You can normally solve this problem with canceling the installation and rebooting the system.

I have seen this behavior more often with Acrobat CC when you open and close PDF files fast and try to delete immediately the file. The file is then locked and when you delete the file some time later the folder of the file can't be deleted. You can delete the folder after a reboot.

There is also an other root cause when WINDOWS 10 makes security updates in background where the system waits for a reboot. Then it can also happen that your current user account lack on rights.

For this problems on my system an attribute change was not not a possible solution as these blocks was not a attribute problem it rather was a rights problem where user admin rights are not enough to clear a system lock for involved files and/or folder.

[AlbertLotito]

I have been thinking about that my self. I do not have a good answer.

I do know that one of the other problems I thought might be the cause was the google backup/sync software or AV software. Turning both of those off did not solve the problem.
Once I reset all the attributes everything ran like a dream.

Originally Posted by DNSB

I'd be more interested in finding out how his calibre directory tree got marked as read-only. The only time I've seen something similar was a few years back when a co-worker used a writable DVD to transfer his library to a new computer.

[Donald S]

In my case it was the calibre-cache directory which was read-only.
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\calibre-cache

I had just installed the new version 3.44 and the problem showed up.

Such a simple fix in the end. Thanks for the clues!

[Rob557]

I had this error message to0, but my circumstances are different and it was my foolish mistake. It's been a while since I had set up a new library folder in Calibre. In the create-library window I simply typed in the new library name and clicked on OK resulting in "Windows error 5: Access is denied" because it was trying to access a location on my C drive. The problem goes away if I simply click on the icon to the right of the new library name and select the location on my other drive where I the other Calibre library folders are located.