Locked Word File, How to Open

[Carbo]

Migrated all my files from an older Windows 7 laptop to a new Windows 10 machine. The older one was running Office 2013 Pro. I backed up some Word files that were encrypted. No problem, as I have the password. But the new laptop with the Office 365 trial I am using won't open the files and I don't see any option to unlock them using a password. Any suggestions?

 

[candio]

You will to post the exact error message you get when you try to open the problematic file.

 

[Carbo]

"Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges."

 

[ronbo613]

Just a guess here, won't hurt to try. Open Microsoft Word by right clicking and "Run as Administrator". Then open the Word document through the Word program.

 

[Carbo]

Tried your suggestion, but it didn't grant me access.

 

[quikah]

Who is the owner of the files? Right click on the file, properties, security, advanced. Change the owner to you if it is something different.

 

[bruceb]

Have a look at this link: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-is-File-Block-10d0e0ab-fecf-4605-befd-1e6563e7686d

You could also just get rid of pay per month Office 365 and reinstall Office 2013 (if you have the License code for it)

 

[ronbo613]

Tried your suggestion, but it didn't grant me access.

Bummer. At least there is a 100% money back guarantee for the advice. Good luck with your problem, you'll figure it out eventually.

 

[Carbo]

Ugh. Still battling this issue. Here's some additional details that might help.
I backed up folders and files I needed to an external hard drive, from a laptop running Windows 7 and Office 2013. I dumped a bunch of Word files into a folder I labeled Desktop. Walked over to my shiny new Windows 10 machine, plugged the external drive into it to begin what I thought would be a quick process to restore the files and hours later I'm still trying. I can open and access Word files that aren't in that particular folder, but that folder is continually giving me permission denied errors. The font on the folder and all the files it contains are in green, too, which is probably indicative of a sharing-permission issue, I assume. I've tried changing all sorts of settings but still no go. It's not Office, since I can open most of the files. It's the one with the green fonts that are in that folder.
Before I hammer the laptop to submission, any suggestions?

 

[Carbo]

Further investigation leads me to believe I screwed up royally. I encrypted one Word file about a month ago. I know the password. But somehow an entire folder has become encrypted, leaving me in the lurch. Compounding the problem is that the laptop running Windows 7 where the file was password protected had the hard drive wiped and Windows 7 clean installed. So from what I can gather from talking to folks and searching the 'net is that the folder cannot be cracked. It has nothing to do with sharing permissions.

 

[bruceb]

What program did you use to encrypt the files ? Without knowing that there is no way to tell if the encryption can be removed.

 

[Carbo]

The encryption that is included with Office 2013.

 

[bruceb]

Try the tools here from Elcomsoft -- not sure if they are free or not, but their software is very good and should be able to decrypt them

https://www.elcomsoft.com/aopr.html

 

[Carbo]

Interesting possibility, and not too expensive. I'll look into this. Thank you.