On Windows, can synchronize clear the read-only flag?

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Posts: 1
Joined: 14 Nov 2025

F.OnTheHill

Hi. Short noobie question.

I need to synchronize 10+ million Windows files & folders to an external USB drive for consolidation and transport. For unfortunate historical reasons many are flagged read-only. It would be very convenient if all destination copies were NOT flagged read-only. (Especially since the Windows 10 machines cannot successfully clear these flags on the source files. Which is most frustrating.)

Can FreeFileSync accomplish this?

Thank you.
Posts: 4908
Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

No, but you should be able to remove the readonly flag from the top directory and then all subdirectories and files