Fixed: Windows Cannot Access the Specified Device Path or File

Error: Windows cannot access the specified device path or file

When you're attempting to open/modify/delete a file or install/update/start a program, you may receive an error message that says "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file" like the screenshot shown as follows:

What an annoying thing it is because it means you won't be able to do anything to the file or program. What causes this issue? How to get rid of this error message? Let's get started with these two questions that people frequently ask.

Why Windows cannot access the specified device?

Generally, there are various reasons that can cause the problem Windows cannot access the specified path. Here we list the most possible ones:

★ You don't have the permission to access the file.
★ The file location doesn't exist or is not accessible.
★ The file has been blocked by Windows.
★ The antivirus software may prevent you from the files.
★ The file is corrupted, removed, or deleted.

After knowing the causes, the following solutions are worth a try to solve this issue. Keep on reading.

How to fix Windows cannot access the specified device path or file?

Here, you will get five solutions to the problem. You can try them one by one until you can access the item successfully.

Solution 1. Check the permission of the file or folder

First of all, you should check whether the target file needs permission or not when you find Windows cannot access the specified device. The files that need specific permission won't allow you to access them directly. Follow the steps below to gain permission of the file or folder.

Step 1. Right-click the file or folder you want to operate, and then select the "Properties" > "Security" tab.

Step 2. Under the "Group or User names" section, click your name to see the permissions you have. Then, select "Edit".

Step 3. Check the checkboxes for the permissions that you need and select "OK".

After that, you will most likely be able to access files that have not been opened before.

Solution 2. Check the file location

The nonexistent and inaccessible file location may give rise to the issue that Windows cannot access the specified device path or file. For example, when you are trying to access a file that is on a networked or a removable drive that is no longer connected to your computer, the error message certainly pops out.

Thus, check if the location of the file is accessible via the following instructions.

Step 1. Right-click the shortcut of the file and select "Properties".

Step 2. Under the "Shortcut" tab in the popup window, check the path in the Target section is available or not.

Solution 3. Unblock the file

In some cases, Windows may have the file blocked to protect the computer. To fix the Windows cannot access the specified path issue, you can try the steps below to unblock the file.

Step 1. Right-click the problematic file and then select "Properties".

Step 2. Go to the General tab, check "Unblock" and click "OK" to confirm the operation.

Solution 4. Disable antivirus software temporarily.

Sometimes, antivirus software may prevent dubious programs or files from running. That explains why Windows cannot access the specified file. Therefore, temporarily disabling it is an effective way to eliminate this problem.

Step 1. Press the "Windows + R" keys to open Run dialog, type "msconfig" in the box, and click "OK" or hit "Enter" to open System Configuration.

Step 2. In the System Configuration window, go to the "Start up" tab and click "Open Task Manager".

Step 3. Then, locate the antivirus program and choose it. Then click the "Disable" button at the right bottom or right-click it and choose "Disable".

Solution 5. Recover the file that has been deleted, removed, or corrupted.

If the above methods are not working, Windows cannot access the specified device error may be caused by the file deletion. To access the file, you have to recover it in the first place.

To recover the lost data securely, you can make use of an intelligent data recovery tool named AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. It's a user-friendly program for Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista users, which can be used to restore deleted videos, photos, Word, Excel, and other file types from different drives including HDD, SDD, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc.

Here is a step-by-step guide to bring back the files that Windows cannot access normally.

Step 1. Install and launch this AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. In the main interface, click "Recover" > "Recover Data" at the top toolbar.

Step 2. Choose the source drive (where the file is not available) and click "Start Scan".

Step 3. After scanning, all deleted files, recycle bin, and other missing files will be displayed. You can the filenames, extensions, size, type, date modified, path, etc to search the lost files.

Step 4. Then, locate the original location like "Deleted Files" or "Recycle Bin", choose the files you want to restore, and click "Recover". 

Step 5. Select a folder path on your PC to save the recovered data and wait for the end of the recovery process.

Now, you can open the file or program again to see if the Windows cannot access the specified path problem is solved.

Conclusion

That's all about the Windows cannot access the specified device problem: what’s the reason and how to fix it? From this page, you have learned the appearance of this error is led by various factors and known five useful methods to resolve the problem.

By the way, for the sake of preventing files from being accessed due to some unknown reasons, it's highly recommended to make a backup of them. You could use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to back up all important files by moving them to a different drive or cloning the hard drive Windows 10.