Cannot Save Games or Install Mods - Access Denied

[qwerty52]

Hi, all,

Hoping you can help me as I am having an issue I cannot solve that is preventing me from playing the game entirely. I have searched the forum and the web for a while now without finding a solution. While I have come across other users with a similar issue, I have not seen a confirmed fix anywhere.

I am using the Steam version of the game on a new laptop. The game will boot up fine, but it cannot seem to make any changes to the hard drive. When I try and save a new game, I get the "Access is denied" error in the attached screenshot. When I try and install a mod I get a similar error.

So far, I have:
- Made sure that my user account (the only one for this machine) has administrator permissions
- Made sure that I am running the game as an administrator
- Made sure that I am running Steam as an administrator
- Checked the local folder properties and ensured that read-only is unchecked
- Uninstalled Factorio, deleted the local folders, reinstalled and tried again

...all with no success.

I'm baffled by it. It would seem to be a file permission issue but that can't be the case when I have confirmed in several different ways that I and the game should have full admin access.

Grateful for any help received, thanks!

[Loewchen]

Restart the machine and check installation integrity through steam.

[FuryoftheStars]

Also maybe check your permissions to the %appdata%\Roaming\Factorio folder, as that's where it actually saves games and mods to. (This is different than the "local files" that Steam brings you to.)

[qwerty52]

Thanks for the prompt responses. Still can't get it to work, though. What a pain!

[Loewchen]

Disable any anti virus software you might be running.

[qwerty52]

I gave that a try, but nothing changed. Thanks again for trying to help me out.

[FuryoftheStars]

Not to just abandon troubleshooting this (probably still should try to figure it out), but if you want to just be able to play the game, you can download the .zip version of the game from here: https://factorio.com/download

It should be self contained (saves and mods read/write within the extracted folder), so if it is a permissions issue, that version should work.

If it doesn't, then there's definitely something on your PC that's messing with you....

[qwerty52]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give that a try! It will confirm that the issue is my PC, which I'm almost certain of anyway as it's clearly not a common Factorio issue. If I can have a game while I go through the slog of fixing my permissions issues it will at least be something! Thanks again.

[Tertius]

If you look into the logfile, you see not only saves to C:\Users\mille\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\saves fail, also mod downloads to C:\Users\mille\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\temp fail.
However C:\Users\mille\AppData\Roaming is part of the Windows user profile and is freely accessible for all apps with no exception. There are no file system permission restrictions. If access is denied, some security software such as the Windows defender with activated ransomware protection might still deny access. Or you have some other over-eager security software installed that denies access.

To check what it is, open that directory in Windows explorer and copy some file into it or create some new file. Will probably fail as well - independently from Steam and Factorio.

[SoShootMe]

If access is denied, some security software such as the Windows defender with activated ransomware protection might still deny access. Or you have some other over-eager security software installed that denies access.

I think it's more likely that the file is open by something reading it (either as it was being written or as soon as it was closed, somehow getting in before the rename).

The only thing other than security software (already mentioned above) scanning the file that springs to mind is a file synchronisation tool.

To check what it is, open that directory in Windows explorer and copy some file into it or create some new file. Will probably fail as well - independently from Steam and Factorio.

I don't think this is likely to reveal anything. Creation of "SAVE.tmp.zip" by Factorio apparently worked. If the error is triggered due to the rename being blocked, that might be because it is made by Factorio and the same rename may suceed if done through Windows Explorer. And if it's due to the file being open (eg for scanning), it will probably also work due to a difference in timing.

[qwerty52]

Thanks so much, guys - you've cracked it. My Avast anti-virus software was protecting my user folder as part of its ransomware function. Excluding the folder from that protection fixed the problem instantly.

Cheers!

(PS - I'm new here so not sure if I can mark the post as *solved* myself?)

[Loewchen]

How can that be when you disabled all anti virus software before already?

[qwerty52]

I've no idea really, maybe I didn't do the right thing when you suggested that. Maybe I just got lucky the second time around!

[Tertius]

Ransomware protection software that doesn't tell you it blocked access, so software is malfunctioning without the user knowing the reason, is a software you should get rid of. You're using Windows 11 - just use the integrated Windows defender at no cost. It comes with ransomware protection as well, you just have to enable it. It sends a notification as well as provides a history of past blocks.