0x80070003 — The system cannot find the path specified A directory in the path is gone.
Steps that usually fix it
- Reconnect the drive letter
- Re-create the path the file record expects
- Restore the folder name
Note
Use UNC paths for shared project folders.
Before changing anything
The code above is what an application reports; it is not a diagnosis of what went wrong. Two checks are worth doing before permissions are touched: whether the file is on a volume the application can actually reach, and whether the file was moved or renamed since it was last opened. Both report as this code more often than a permission problem does.
Pages in this section describe the code as applications report it. Where a fix is listed here, it is one the library has seen work on a real file; where nothing has been confirmed, the page says so instead of guessing at a cause.
Reviewed 2026-10-05 by R. Okonkwo.