Error 0x80070522: Required privilege not held by the client when copying files

When you copy files to a non-system drive’s root folder, the error code 0x80070522 (“ERROR_PRIVILEGE_NOT_HELD”) may occur. The full error message verbatim is mentioned below:

An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem.

Error 0x80070522: A required privilege is not held by the client.

0x80070522 unexpected error when copying a file - privilege not held.

The above error may occur even though you’re logged in as administrator and the “Administrators” have Full Control permissions for the non-system root folder.

Cause

The above error occurs if the non-system drive’s root folder is assigned the “High” Mandatory Integrity level. By default, the “High” integrity level is only assigned for the OS partition’s root folder — usually C:. When a folder has “High” integrity level, only elevated processes can write to that folder.

(For more information about integrity levels, see the article Mandatory Integrity Control at Microsoft Learn.)

Running the ICACLS D:\ command may show something like this:

0x80070522 unexpected error when copying a file - privilege not held. when copying files

Mandatory Label\High Mandatory Level:(OI)(NP)(IO)(NW)

If the secondary drive’s root folder has a “High” integrity level, it could be because the drive was once an OS partition — e.g., dual boot installation, or you connected the secondary disk from another computer.

Resolution

Setting the Mandatory integrity level to “Medium” integrity for the non-system drive’s root folder fixes the issue.

Open an admin Command Prompt window.

Type the following command:

icacls D:\ /setintegritylevel M

Press Enter.

You should see the message “Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files” as the output.

Now, running the ICACLS D:\ command will show that the root folder has a Medium integrity level.

We’ve also covered the icacls.exe’s /setintegritylevel command-line argument in these articles.

I hope that helps. Let me know your comments.

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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a ten-time recipient of the Microsoft MVP award in Windows Desktop Experience (Windows Shell), from 2003 to 2012. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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5 thoughts on “Error 0x80070522: Required privilege not held by the client when copying files”

  1. Yours is the only source online I can find of value in resolving this issue. Your passion in the subject is clear where many other sources are found to be lacking. Thank you for this answer.

    Reply

  2. Thank you soooo much i didnt know about the “icacls” command at all, it solved my problem here. And in fact my hdd had windows on the the main partition. i used him as main drive in the past.

    Reply

  3. Really good article, just that “medium” or even “low” is not a full fix. It allows one to copy and save files to the drive, but if you dual boot with Linux and download a Steam game to it, back in Windows, that game will not be able to access the user’s AppData to store configuration or save games. We really need a way to remove Mandatory Integrity programmatically. 🤔

    Reply

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