How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

The QBW file and a couple of others are marked as read-only. even if i clear the flag every time i run QB it resets the flag.

it is messing up with my ability to backup the files. It won't overwrite the backup file (on OneDrive) becasue it also is marked as read-only.

I don't see the advantage of having it marked as read-only as long as i have good backups, which i normally do (except for this file)

How can I turn this "feature" off?

13 Comments 13 QuickBooks Team ‎April 05, 2020 08:19 AM

How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

Let me provide you an insight into why you have the read-only setting in QuickBooks, @biconix1.

The read or view access only is set up by the Administrator, this is a restriction for users in QuickBooks to keep users from seeing the account balances.

If you wanted to remove this restriction, make sure that you log in as an Admin .

To remove the view only restriction, here’s how.

  1. Go to Company menu,
  2. Select User .
  3. Select Set up Users and Roles .
  4. Select the user that you wanted to remove the View Only Roles/Restriction.
  5. On the Assigned Roles, Highlight the View Only. Then, click Remove.
  6. Click Ok .

You can refer to this article for additional information on how to create and manage roles in QuickBook: Create and manage roles in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions. Keep safe.

‎April 05, 2020 09:05 AM

How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

Thank you very much for your reply and suggestion Pabz_L

This is not the solution since I am referring the the properties of the file itself, not the accessibility within QB. BTW, I am using QB Pro 2020 not Enterprise.

I always login as the admin and it seems that when I exit QB, the application changes the properties of the QBW file to be readonly, regardless of the property when I start the QB application

‎April 05, 2020 11:04 AM

How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

Allow me to take over and help you access your data without being change into a read-only access file.

QuickBooks Read-Only Error usually occurs when users try to replace the company file with a backup or portable file. To get this resolve, you can follow the steps below:

  1. Launch the File Explorer application on your computer and navigate to the directory in which the read-only QuickBooks file is stored.
  2. Right-click the affected file and click " Properties " on the pop-up menu that appears.
  3. Click the " General " tab, if necessary, and then remove the check-mark from the " Read-Only " checkbox.
  4. Click the " OK " button and then try opening the file again.

After that, try restoring the original file. You can follow the steps in this article in restoring your company data: Restore your file.

To know more about creating and restoring a backup company file in QuickBooks, check these out:

Please get back to me if you continue to get the same results so I can look further into this. I need to make sure this is resolved and you're back up and running.

‎April 05, 2020 11:08 AM

How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

Thank you for your reply

My question is not how to change the property, my question is how to prevent QuickBooks from setting the read-only flag in the first place

The problem does not exist on my main drive, it occurs on the backup drive becasue when I copy the QBW to the backup drive, it copies it with the read-only flag set. the next time i try to copy the file, I get an error since the file is read-only and the file is not copied. thus, i do not have an up to date backup

‎April 05, 2020 01:05 PM

How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

Hello there, biconix1.

The files can be read-only like a particular configured flash drive and other like SD cards. Certain areas of your computer memory may also be set as read-only.

Other things besides these situations, the QBW file may be Read Only due to their location. If we are not the author or creator of the QBW, we will only have the ready only available option. With that being said, it is in our NT log in depending on the authorized person if they allow us to not have the read-only QBW file access.

Know that I am here together with my colleagues above to help you more. Stay safe and healthy!

‎April 06, 2020 12:31 PM

How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

These files are on my primary hard drive, C:

again, I believe it is the application itself that closes the file on exit and sets the read-only flag. is there a way to disable this?

QuickBooks Team ‎April 06, 2020 03:53 PM

How can I turn off the automatic read only setting

The files appear as read-only because of the type of media they are stored on. Some files on your hard drive that are set to read-only can be made editable by removing the read-only attribute in the File Explorer. Let me guide you how.

  1. Launch the File Explorer application on your computer and navigate to the directory in which the read-only QuickBooks file is stored.
  2. Right-click the affected file and click Properties on the pop-up menu that appears.
  3. Click the General tab, if necessary, and then remove the checkmark from the Read-Only checkbox.
  4. Click the OK button and then try opening the file again.

But if the files continue to open as read-only, try running QuickBooks as an administrator and then opening the file.

  1. Quit QuickBooks if it is currently running on your computer.
  2. Right-click the QuickBooks icon on the Windows 8 Start or Desktop screen and select Properties on the menu that appears.
  3. Click the Compatibility tab in the Properties window.
  4. Click the Run this Program as an Administrator box in the Privilege Level section of the Compatibility tab.
  5. Click OK , click the QuickBooks icon to launch the application, and then open the read-only file.

I have included these help articles for future reference about Account Management.

Reply to this post if you need further assistance. I'll be here to help.