all folders on drive marked as "read only"; del requires admin rights

I have a secondary hard drive that requires admin permission to delete files. Whenever I try to delete a file, I get a popup that says:

"Are you sure you want to move this file to the Recycle Bin?"

If I click "Yes", I get another popup that says:

"You'll need to provide administrator permission to delete this file"

If I click "Continue", the file is permanently deleted and doesn't go to the Recycle Bin; why?

I noticed that all folders on this drive seem to have the "Read-only" property checked; if I uncheck it, then click Apply, the change appears to take but then if I click off that folder, then right click on it again and click "Properties", the "Read-only" property is set again.

What's strange is I am able to create files in any of these "Read-only" folders without issue; it is only deleting them that gives the above behavior.

Note this drive is protected with BitLocker; I suspect that might have something to do with it but have no idea what needs to change. The drive is setup to automatically decrypt when the PC is booted.

The primary C: drive is also encrypted with BitLocker but does not exhibit the behavior described above. I am able to delete files without the "administrator permission" prompt (unless it's a path where admin rights are required to create the file/folder), and deleted files go to the recycle bin.

This is running Windows 10 Version 21H1 (OS Build 19043.2130)

Check Properties of the Recycle Bin itself, some options that can be changed:

Citizen Snips said:

I noticed that all folders on this drive seem to have the "Read-only" property checked; if I uncheck it, then click Apply, the change appears to take but then if I click off that folder, then right click on it again and click "Properties", the "Read-only" property is set again.

That's a red herring.
That checkbox shown in a folder's properties by File explorer is, to all intends & purposes, meaningless [and has been since Windows 7].
It does not mean, for example, that the folder is read-only.
Whatever the cause of your problem is, it lies elsewhere.


If you want to stop those Admin prompts, I suggest you select this data drive in File explorer & right-click on it,
Properties,
Security tab,
Advanced,
[Check the owner is sensible - probably either yourself or 'Administrators' {plural}],
Add,
Principal - Authenticated users,
Type - Allow,
Applies to - This folder, subfolders, files,
Basic permissions - Full control,
OK.

[Authenticated users are those who have a user account & have therefore logged in to the computer],

See
Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key - TenForumsTutorials
Change Permissions - TenForumsTutorials


Denis

Citizen Snips said:

... the recycle bin is common to all drives, so that wouldn't explain why I only have this issue with the D: drive and not the C: drive.

Your recycle bin properties should show you all your drives and allow you to use different settings on each of them.

Denis

Citizen Snips said:

... doesn't the primary account on a Windows 10 machine have admin rights by default?

The user account created during initial boot of Windows 10 ["OOBE"] is an Admin user account.
Like any other Admin account you create, it is initially logged in with standard-user-level permissions and the UAC prompt is used to apply Admin permission to proceed for specific tasks. That's how Windows is designed.

All the best,
Denis

Citizen Snips said:

Yet I am allowed to delete files/folders created in that folder without the administrator prompt ...

Yes. You have logged in to your computer and are therefore an Authenticated user who has Modify permission [which I believe includes Delete permission - I do not seem to have kept a link to any MS article that confirms this].

Denis