*Potential* Fixes for Missing File Permissions, Content File Locked, and other permissions-related errors

[=Birb=]

I think a lot of people have been having these errors, and they included me for a few days. This is how I was able to fix it for myself.

THE ISSUE:
ESO's repair function will not rectify the game's files. Verifying your files through Steam (or tring to redownload the entire game) will make you download a ton of stuff, only to never complete the installation/download because "Content File Locked" or whichever permissions-related error you have received.

THE CAUSE:
In my case, the folders targetted by Steam are locked by some weird/bad/stupid security features, preventing Steam from manipulating them. I blame Windows 10, but I don't know for sure if that is the case.

THE FIX(ES):

First and foremost, don't attempt to repair anything and just restart your computer, then try again. Or, try it with Steam running in administrator mode.

If you have ESO completely downloaded still, go to the steamapps>common>Zenimax Online.
Right-click its folder, go to properties>general and make sure that it is NOT set to "read only". If you need to uncheck the box, apply the changes to all subfolders and files. Once finished, try the ESO repair function through its launcher again.

If that did not work, or your computer decided to sass you out, you will have to pull out the bigger guns. Right-click the same Zerimax Online folder and hit properties>security. Find your user/group and make sure that you have full control over the file and its contents. If you are not sure which user you are, hit "edit" and "add", then type "Everyone" in the text box. Click "Check names", and it should get underlined. Hit OK and give them full control. If that did not work either, I can't help much further because at that point, I decided to reinstall ESO from scratch.

If you have uninstalled ESO and cannot reinstall due to a similar error, you may stlil be in luck.
Navigate to steamapps>downloading>306130. This is where the ESO (the number 306130 is its ID) is trying to download, but is failing to do so because of the permission errors. Try the same troubleshooting approach as above on this folder, aiming to unlock its permissions so that Steam can manipulate it.

If things are still looking bleak, don't run out of hope yet. None of this worked for me either, although it apparently has for some. It is now time for the biggest guns.

If nothing has helped thusfar, all I can suggest is redownloading ESO from scratch, whether you have uninstalled it yet or not. When uninstalled, restart your computer in safe mode. Safe mode will allow you to delete both the steamapps>common>Zenimax Online folder and the steamapps>downloading>306130 folder. Restarting in normal mode afterwards should allow you to restart your download from the beginning without any permissions issues.

I will note that it is safe to delete the entire "downloading" folder if you have no downloads still in progress.

Hopefully this helps at least some of you. I will subscribe to this thread's updates and try to answer any questions.

[Izuela]

Very useful!
I wonder how hard this will be to rectify for those with windows 8. I never used it myself but I've been told it's near impossible to edit permissions. So they may been to do the delete in safemode thing.

[Zachism]

Yeah, the programdata no matter what permissions you give it, it always says acess denied even if you own it and have all the permissions.

[Zachism]

I di safe mode again changed all person twice and it worked, thank you so much been dealing with this for weeks.

[Zachism]

Wait, I loaded the game it worked and now its back to error 210 lol this is ridiculous.

[Zachism]

The host file inside of the program data is denying permissions even though it says I own it.

[=Birb=]

Sorry to hear about that. Using safe mode is the most effective method I currently know about, but I'll let you know if I find anything else out.

[Izuela]

Originally posted by SpaceZachTheNebula:

The host file inside of the program data is denying permissions even though it says I own it.

Did you try the last resort yet?

Originally posted by sssuperguy:

If nothing has helped thusfar, all I can suggest is redownloading ESO from scratch, whether you have uninstalled it yet or not. When uninstalled, restart your computer in safe mode. Safe mode will allow you to delete both the steamapps>common>Zenimax Online folder and the steamapps>downloading>306130 folder. Restarting in normal mode afterwards should allow you to restart your download from the beginning without any permissions issues.

[Zachism]

I did all of the suggestions I only spent weeks trying to fix this. I give up.

[Chikuwu]

That sounds like you dont actually have permission to review the file. That can happen in many situations.

my wife runs the game on windows 10 computer (64bit client) and there has been no issues regarding of this even though she runs it on a non-admin account (its a security thing, no point running the login account as administrator if you dont need the specific settings) and even on that non-admin account there hasnt been this problem.

Are you sure you dont have any antivirus/etc program that denies access to Hosts file, or a virus that has infected it? It might mean UAC has been taken over by infecting windows files that deny access for you to run/do certain things.

Usually, this error happens when a virus (background or not) has taken over the admin rights on your computer, and it of course shows that "youre administrator" even though youre actually not.

id suggest at first when something is not working right doing a full scan on your computer with a GOOD software like malwarebytes anti-malware or similar solution. (No avast, no f-secure or other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AV program with bad detection algorithms) and after youre sure that youre not infected, check the HOSTS file.

If its not original, it means something has broken it, an old malware perhaps, and its denying access.

[RunicMoose]

sorry for resurrecting this months on but im stuck on one of the stages,

Originally posted by sssuperguy:

If you have ESO completely downloaded still, go to the steamapps>common>Zenimax Online.
Right-click its folder, go to properties>general and make sure that it is NOT set to "read only". If you need to uncheck the box, apply the changes to all subfolders and files. Once finished, try the ESO repair function through its launcher again.

the zenimax folder is marked as read only and even though im an administrator (the only person who uses this machine) i dont have the permissions to change the files. any idea how to fix this?

this is on the second install of the game, the first time the game wouldnt launch just try to install the launcher every time i tried, this time i just get 'Content file locked' at the very end of the download

[=Birb=]

See if you can uncheck "read only" while your computer is in safe mode. Safe mode seems to allow you to override a lot of the permission settings and such which tends to screw everyone using Windows 10 over.
Of course, you can try deleting ESO and its download file while in safe mode and trying again, although we all know how much of a pain downloading that game is. Hopefully this helps.

As a note to everyone, there's a way to fix ESO's Error 210 (patch manifest error) as soon as it appears by closing your game and restarting your computer. Do not attempt to repair or validate your files, just restart your computer.

[RunicMoose]

hmm, i did try safe mode but thats not getting me anywhere either for some reason, i'll give it another try and see how we get on. thanks

[Brother TombStone]

I deleted my client folder for eso. I was un sure what to do. Monday came and had its update and i tried to start the game up, it had a green box around my screen. Then it said unable to initialize the game, make sure it was launched through steam. Ive reinstalled it like 4 times this week and it still was not working. Then for some reason i started to delete stuff. Now when i launch the game it says the game is installing but then nothing happens. Any tips or is my time playing eso on pc done? Lol thank you

[=Birb=]

Uhm.. I'm currently assuming that you can run the ESO launcher and are stuck from there. If you've lost the large majority of the game files already, it shouldn't hurt to try redownloading the launcher itself from Steam again.

If you don't have the launcher anymore and Steam itself is causing you troubles, try restarting Steam first and make sure that all traces of ESO are gone (that includes the common folder as well as the downloads folder).

Lemme know how it goes.