Unauthorizedaccessexception Cannot Resolve Directory.Getfiles Failure

UnauthorizedAccessException cannot resolve Directory.GetFiles failure

In order to gain control on the level that you want, you should probably probe one directory at a time, instead of a whole tree. The following method populates the given IList<string> with all files found in the directory tree, except those where the user doesn't have access:

// using System.Linq
private static void AddFiles(string path, IList<string> files)
{
    try
    {
        Directory.GetFiles(path)
            .ToList()
            .ForEach(s => files.Add(s));

        Directory.GetDirectories(path)
            .ToList()
            .ForEach(s => AddFiles(s, files));
    }
    catch (UnauthorizedAccessException ex)
    {
        // ok, so we are not allowed to dig into that directory. Move on.
    }
}

Ignore folders/files when Directory.GetFiles() is denied access

You will have to do the recursion manually; don't use AllDirectories - look one folder at a time, then try getting the files from sub-dirs. Untested, but something like below (note uses a delegate rather than building an array):

using System;
using System.IO;
static class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string path = ""; // TODO
        ApplyAllFiles(path, ProcessFile);
    }
    static void ProcessFile(string path) {/* ... */}
    static void ApplyAllFiles(string folder, Action<string> fileAction)
    {
        foreach (string file in Directory.GetFiles(folder))
        {
            fileAction(file);
        }
        foreach (string subDir in Directory.GetDirectories(folder))
        {
            try
            {
                ApplyAllFiles(subDir, fileAction);
            }
            catch
            {
                // swallow, log, whatever
            }
        }
    }
}

Access to file is denied

As per Directory.GetFiles, the error UnauthorizedAccessException is caused by the following:

The caller does not have the required permission.

Also, I wouldnt run GetFiles with search option as AllDirectories but go through one directory at a time. I used this link:

UnauthorizedAccessException cannot resolve Directory.GetFiles failure

Answer 2 (not the accepted one)

GetFiles Access Denied Exception

When an exception occurs and you catch the exception, you still need to return a result for the function. Initialize your variable files to contain an empty array and then return it after the try-catch-block, so it is always returned, even when an error occurs.

public string[] passFiles(string location)
{
    // Create an empty array that will be returned in case something goes wrong
    string[] files = new string[0];
    try
    {
        files = Directory.GetFiles(location);
    }
    catch (UnauthorizedAccessException)
    {
        // Code here will be hit if access is denied.
    }

    return files;
}

See also this question for a similar question and some useful answers.

Access to the path is denied when using Directory.GetFiles(...)

If you want to continue with the next folder after a fail, then yea; you'll have to do it yourself. I would recommend a Stack<T> (depth first) or Queue<T> (bredth first) rather than recursion, and an iterator block (yield return); then you avoid both stack-overflow and memory usage issues.

Example:

    public static IEnumerable<string> GetFiles(string root, string searchPattern)
    {
        Stack<string> pending = new Stack<string>();
        pending.Push(root);
        while (pending.Count != 0)
        {
            var path = pending.Pop();
            string[] next = null;
            try
            {
                next = Directory.GetFiles(path, searchPattern);                    
            }
            catch { }
            if(next != null && next.Length != 0)
                foreach (var file in next) yield return file;
            try
            {
                next = Directory.GetDirectories(path);
                foreach (var subdir in next) pending.Push(subdir);
            }
            catch { }
        }
    }

How to continue from a UnauthorizedAccessException error in c# when searching for files

You need to use recursion to query one directory at a time. This way you can catch any unauthorized exceptions and continue your search.

static void Main()
{
    foreach (DriveInfo info in DriveInfo.GetDrives().Where(c => c.IsReady))
    {
        foreach (string file in DirSearch(info.RootDirectory.FullName))
        {
            Console.WriteLine(file);
        }
    }
    Console.ReadKey(true);
}

private static IList<string> DirSearch(string path)
{
    List<string> files = new List<string>();
    try
    {
        foreach (string dir in Directory.GetDirectories(path))
        {
            foreach (string file in Directory.GetFiles(dir))
            {
                files.Add(file);
            }
            files.AddRange(DirSearch(dir));
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
    }
    return files;
}

System.UnauthorizedAccessException when getting files

Your app could not have access rights to some folders, for others you can use the following code:

void DiscoverDirs(string where, List<string> files, Func<FileInfo, bool> filter)
{
    try
    {
        var di = new DirectoryInfo(where);
        files.AddRange(di.EnumerateFiles().Where(filter).Select(x => x.FullName));

        foreach (var dir in Directory.GetDirectories(where))
        {
            DiscoverDirs(dir, files, filter);
        }
    }
    catch
    {
        // no access fo this dir, ignore
    }
}

Usage:

DateTime From = DateTime.Now.AddHours(-24);
DateTime To = DateTime.Now;
var ScanSize = 5*1024*1024;

var list = new List<string>();
DiscoverDirs(@"C:\", list, 
    file => file.LastWriteTime >= From & file.LastWriteTime <= To && file.Length >= ScanSize);

foreach (string name in list)
{
    FileInfo file = new FileInfo(name);
    string fullname = file.FullName;

    Console.WriteLine(file.FullName + " ; " + "last changed at  " + " ; " + file.LastWriteTime.ToString());
}

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