I want to enable file auditing on a shared network drive specifically in order to track who creates and deletes files (in the event of a catastrophe). Somehow I don't have permission to change or view the directory's auditing settings, despite being both owner and a domain administrator with full control.
More details: I'm the administrator for a small office running a server with Windows Server 2016. I'm trying to enable file auditing on the shared network drive, so that we can track who deletes files (in the event of catastrophe). I've followed the steps in this how-to from Microsoft up to the point where you edit the auditing entry for a particular directory. When I go to the "Auditing" tab of "Advanced Security Settings" for the desired directory, I get a message that says "You do not have permission to view or edit this object's audit settings." Auditing is working to the extent that I can see the login/logout audit in the event log.
I am logged in as the domain administrator. I have full control of this directory. I took ownership of the directory both as all administrators and later as just this domain administrator. I had to do this using takeown in PowerShell because everything else kept throwing ownership errors. Now I'm also worried that this was a mistake, and that I shouldn't have taken ownership of all of those files.
A little background: I do not have a background in IT, I have a master's in computer science and have become the network administrator because I'm the one who's "good with computers." Any help on this problem (or reassurance on the ownership issue) would be greatly appreciated!
Best Answer
I was using a filepath that used a mapped drive in it. When I switched to a direct filepath, the issue disappeared.
That is, I needed to go to
\\servername\Shared Folders\MyFolderinstead ofS:\MyFolder(where\\servername\Shared Folders\has been mapped to the S drive). Posting this as an answer in case it helps anyone else who gets stuck for a silly reason!