@outsidecontext Like this?
I’m trying to save results in Picard but the actual files won’t change. I looked for help and found some documentation that said it might be because the files or folder are readonly write protected. How do i tell if it is and if it is how do i fix it?
Assuming your operating system is Windows, this shows you how to change the read-only setting on files:
This didn’t work. After unchecking read-only and clicking apply and ok it stays read only
I’m not totally sure, but you might want to check whether the folder where the files reside in or one of the parent folders has the read-only flag set.
It can also depend on where the files are located. E.g. some USB sticks allow to enable write protection, or if the files are located on a network share write protection might be set on the file server. But I’m not sure if in those cases Windows would show the read-only flag as set and allow you to change it.
The folder is what i checked.
C:\Users\User\Documents\Music\Weird al
And does the folder have read-only set in properties? If yes, can you disable it?
Like i said, i followed the instructions provided by Beckfield: Right click > Properties > Attributes > Uncheck Read-only (Only applies to files in folder) > Click Apply > Click OK
I open the properties again and no luck, it’s rechecked.
@IvanDobsky do you have some idea here?
When you say it’s “rechecked,” does it look like this:
or this:
The dash, as seen in the first screenshot, means that there is at least one file (but not all files) with the read-only attribute in the folder. Your files are probably not read-only, but there may be a hidden system file that is invisible when you open the folder. Those files are always read-only. To be certain, open the folder and look at the read-only attribute on the actual files (not the folder).
If all the files in the folder are read-only, you will see the actual check mark in the Read-only attribute, as in the second screenshot.
More on this here: Microsoft Answers
I also read somewhere that some malware blockers can interfere with your ability to touch files. If the above doesn’t resolve the issue, you might look into that.
Been away for the weekend… only just back.
If the obvious are covered, then we need to check the dumb Windows Features. I see you have Windows Seven. The colours of your Read Only is fairly normal. It would be a Tick on the folder if the whole folder is locked as Read Only. Otherwise it should be a blob like you see. As noted above - some system files cause that. (I always avoid that Microsoft Answers forum as it is mainly idiots helping idiots and often a mess of wrong answers…)
1\ Have you been following any odd security guides to fix this? Not been messing with that Security tab? On a Folder and\or File looking at that tab you should see your username and ticks next to it to “Allow” Writing.
2\ Which Anti-virus are you using?
3\ A simple test. Make a folder C:\MyMusic\ and attempt to write to that. Does that work okay?
4\ Which Picard are you using? 32-bit or 64-bit? I have a WIn7 box I can compare on. I’ll bump up to the latest and see if anything odd can be repeated.
5\ Win10\11 have some odd Windows features that restrict which apps can write in the Music folders but don’t think that idiocy was back ported to WIn7
6\ I assume the music is not playing in a media player while editing…
I did with another file a LOOOONNNGG time ago but not these (as i can’t figure out which “profile” I’m supposed to give permissions to and i don’t want to fuck things up.
Spybot Search and Destroy 2 & Avast Premium (paid)
How do i write to a folder? Folders don’t have a details tab.
I’m not sure but i do know that my system is 64-bit (cause 32-bit (86?) sucks)
Yeah that’s one of he many MANY reasons i never touched Win10/11 (or Win8 with it’s bootloader trap)
I . . . haven’t tried. Unless you mean editing manually without Picard then yeah it works just fine but you can’t save until the program (WMP, Winamp, VLC) no longer holds the music file.
Also, i should mention:
A. Picard saves changes with other files just fine (but it doesn’t seem to have the editor/composer)
B. Even though the files say they aren’t readonly write protected, I still can’t edit their details even if i do it manually.
1\ May be worth getting some screenshots of those security tabs of the folder and a file.
Lets see what the USER rights are in those situations. (User rights should override the group rights)
Your example shows user is called “User”. They need to have rights with a “Allow” tick next to each row except Special Permissions.
2\ Avast. Ouch. Kill it with fire and try again. Or at least disable it for 20mins and test. Avast\AVG are owned by the same company now and are more “scareware” than proper anti-virus. I’d also disable S&D for testing reasons.
Sometimes these kinds of Scareware “security” packages do dumb things to pretend you are more protected.
3\ I mean copy an album into C:\MyMusic\ and then work on it there. I expect you’ll have no problem with the writing of tags. This is a test to check it is just the location of your Windows Music folder that is borked.
4\ No “32-bit” doesn’t suck. It is just old and what an OS like XP used. Some people don’t like future stuff and stick to older stuff. I assume you are on the 64-bit Picard as it is 2.13.3 (current edition)
5\ Lets not go into a “Win10\11 is bad”. It is just different. Win7 upset people too. Everything can be tamed.
6\ It was a dumb check. Just making sure you were not accidentally having the “file in use” while editing. 
A\ I don’t know what you mean by “other files”. Are you saying some MP3 files save okay, and some don’t?
B\ Can these files be edited in anything? MP3TAG? Or even the File Properties tab? (i.e. on the Details tab of your example "01 Headline News.mp3 above)
7\ Another daft question. Where are these files from? Will they play okay? I have seen corrupted MP3 files refuse to save. I used to get files from dodgy sources like LimeWire or a partially downloaded torrent which would often be so badly corrupted they could cause problems.
8\ A totally off the wall question - when you hit SAVE what do you actually see in the Picard GUI? Is it red icons? What does Picard show when it fails to save?
Some of the above questions may look daft, but I am trying to narrow down what is going weird. I doubt it is directly cause by file rights and more likely something dumb from Avast or simliar.
I was told by someone i trust that the only way to be protected is the Avast/Spybot combo and I’ve worked WAY to hard to get Avast to play nice with everything on my computer (the specific file path exemptions for my VPN was a nightmare to set up). So . . . sunk cost fallacy?
Doesn’t work there either.
I mean, a lot of stuff doesn’t work on 32-bit systems. In fact my current setup would be impossible on a 32-bit system.
I mean . . . I COULD rattle off a laundry list of things Win10/11 does objectively worse than Win7, the least of which is something i recently learned which is apparently you NEED a microsoft account to even log into your computer. Yeesh.
And yeah, Microsoft had to feed a poison pill update to XP to get people to move to 7. I still think we left a lot of good features behind. I miss it.
Yep. Already used Picard to fill in some missing info for the japanese tracks of Good Charlotte’s Chronicles of Life and Death.
I’m not sure what MP3TAG is (it sounds like a third party program). But yeah, when i said manually i meant the Details tab of the Properties window. When you click on a certain field, the field lights up blue like normal but the entry field doesn’t indent.
Oh all over, Downloads, Rips, Torrents, Some of my oldest files are from Kazaa++ (Does knowing what kazaa is show my age? lol), But the files in question are from a rip i believe as the whole album is there, and it had no info at all originally (didn’t even know what it was until Picard identified the songs . . . . I probably could have listened to them to figure that out though. Sometimes I’m really stupid.
Um . . . I just tried to use Picard again to screenshot the GUI and . . . . it just worked . .
Also the files are manually editable now . . . What the hell?!
I’m going to try to find another set of files that have the same issue. I’ll update this thread when i find one. Do you want me to @ you when i find one?
Oh no, you’re fine. I’m familiar with the troubleshooting process. Also, if i haven’t said it yet, Thank you for helping me with this.
Errr… that ain’t right. The top image should have just as many ticks next to your name as the bottom image. That top image basically says you are not allow to do anything in the folder. Maybe also need to check the Music folder itself.
It may be as simple as clicking on EDIT button, selecting your name, then ticking the boxes under the ALLOW column. If the boxes are all greyed out you may need to try doing this at the C:\Users\User\Documents\Music\ level. If still greyed out, come back to this thread and we do some work on a more complex level to fix it…
It is a little odd that you have the Music folder in your Documents folder. Was this upgraded from XP?
Something has clearly gone non-standard here but I’ll walk you through it. Just let me know where things block you and add screen shots.
The rest of these answers may now be less relevant…
2\ If it works for you, then that is fine. Just it is not the company it used to be. Don’t let them fool you into paying for the top end products that you don’t need. (i.e. ignore CCleaner and all the other stuff…) Basic anti-virus cover is enough for anyone. (Unless you are spending all your time in very scummy sites installing all kinds of dodgy cracked software)
XP needed things like Spybot. Win7 and more so Win10 doesn’t really need this kind of software as much.
3\ This is a little bit more concerning. What does the Security tab show on that folder? It may be the rights are messed up at a wider level.
4\ You can run 32-bit software on a 64-bit OS. Just not the other way around.
5\ You are reading a lot of bogus online toot. You don’t have to have an online account, there are ways around it. I am not defending Microsoft as they set out to confuse… but they can be beaten on most fronts.
A\ The fact you can edit some files like “Life and Death” and not others is slightly odd. It implies to me that only some folders have their setting messed up.
B\ MP3TAG is like Picard. ( Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v2, MP4, OGG, FLAC, ...) ) It lets you edit your MP3 tags just like you did in the Microsoft details tab. The fact that these files won’t let you edit the Details tab shows we have a File (or folder) rights issue on those files.
8\ Excellent. If it works, it works. I often take credit for scaring a computer into behaving.
Lets see what happens going forward… maybe enough poking around has started to fix things. Or just moving a few folders around is moving out of the “protected” tree into a “normal” tree.
Just reply in this thread if you need us to dig more. I am around most days.
If we seem to have something intermittent going on I can talk you through how to reset the rights on the C:\Users\User\Documents\Music\ folder and everything under it.
When I see your computer I get a feeling it is an old install that is going a little senile in its old age. Especially if various “security” tools have done their thing over it. And odd bits of advice have been followed. I’ll help you untangle any chaos as I have been working with this MS stuff since the earliest days of DOS and WFW 3.11. So I know all the tricks. 
Also bear in mind that Windows will temporarily make a file read-only if it is open in another application (such as winamp or some other player), or in the case of some microsoft applications until the application itself is closed because often they don’t properly release the file when it is no longer being used. If this is the case, there’s nothing you can do in the settings that will help.
Quick read through - your NTFS permissions are borked my friend, get them reset and you should be back to good.
Before we go off onto other tangents too far - it may be you can fix it via the Command Prompt at Administrator level. (The NTFS permissions mentioned above)
In your Start Menu look for All Programs \ Accessories menu
RIGHT CLICK on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator from the menu
When the black box appears, type this in:
icacls c:\Users\User\Documents\Music\ /grant User:F /t: /inheritance:d
Hit return and see if you get lots of errors, or lots of file names and “successfully processed xxx files”.
If lucky that will fix it. Now when you go look at the Security tab of anything in the Music folder you should find you have your rights back.
If you don’t fix it, let me know and we start messing around with inheritance in more detail. I’ll need to see the Security tab of the Documents and Music folders.
NTFS File Permissions are Black Magic. So don’t be surprised if reading an online guide is confusing. This all traces back to the previous century and is plain weird to normal people. I’ll talk you through it as I know how to avoid talking too much geek. 
The above command it an attempt to just dive in at the deep end and try a fix. If it spits out lots of errors then we will take this slow and look at what we have before fixing it correctly.