Fix: Are You Sure You Want to Copy This File Without its Properties?

Copying a file from your PC to a USB drive, SD card, or another drive that isn’t NTFS can lead to the message “Are you sure you want to copy this file without its properties?”. This happens because the file system on your USB drive or SD card (usually FAT32 or exFAT) doesn’t support some extra information that NTFS uses, such as security settings, extra file details, or hidden information.

The most common reason for this message is when you move or copy files from an NTFS drive to a drive that uses FAT32 or exFAT. This is especially likely when you’re transferring system files, files from synced folders (like OneDrive or Dropbox), or files with special settings.

1. Convert the Destination Drive to NTFS

These popups only appear when copying/moving files from NTFS to FAT drives. This means, if you convert the destination drive to use the NTFS file system, you won’t see these popups at all.

1. Connect the FAT drive to your computer.
2. Hold the Windows Logo key and press R to open the Run dialog box.
3. Type diskmgmt.msc into the box and press Enter.
4. In the top section of the Disk Management window, find and right-click your FAT drive.
5. Select Format… from the menu.
6. Open the dropdown menu next to File system, then select NTFS.
7. Give your drive a name in the Volume label field, if you like.
8. Click OK and wait for the formatting process to finish.

After your drive is formatted to NTFS, you’ll be able to copy or move as many files as you like without seeing the “Are you sure you want to copy this file without its properties?” popup.

2. Use a Script to Automatically Dismiss These Popups

One of the easiest ways to avoid these dialogs is to use a script that will automatically click “Yes” for you. While it’s not practical for anyone to sit and manually dismiss every popup, a script can do this instantly.

1. Download and install AutoIT, a free scripting tool, from here.
2. Click here to download a ZIP file containing the script files you’ll need.
3. Unzip the downloaded ZIP file with a tool like WinRAR.
4. Find the file called stop-copy-dialog.au3. Right-click it, and choose Compile script (x86). (This option appears after you install AutoIT.)
5. AutoIT will create an .EXE file based on that script. Move this EXE file to a safe place, right-click it, and select Create shortcut.
6. To run this script automatically every time your computer starts, move its shortcut to your Startup folder. To find it, press Windows Logo key + R, type shell:startup, and press Enter. Place the shortcut in that folder.

After setting this up, you can uninstall AutoIT and delete the downloaded ZIP file and its contents. The script will now run in the background, automatically clicking through these popups for you as soon as your computer starts.

3. Use a Third-Party File Copying and Moving Program

These popups only appear when you use Windows File Explorer to move files that have properties only NTFS can support, and you’re placing them on a FAT drive. If you find these popups annoying, you can avoid them completely by using a third-party file copying program instead.

Most third-party programs don’t pause or display warnings each time you copy or move a file with properties that FAT can’t handle. Instead, they just transfer the files without those specific properties and move on. A popular program for this purpose is TeraCopy.