WindowsApp external hard drive errors

Are you receiving the same error when you try to do it via Windows settings > system > Storage > advance storage options (only windows 11) > where new content is saved > under apps select the drive

i tried it it worked thanks!

the drive is formatted as exFAT and i tried the admin thing. did not work

Edit: reformatted it to NTFS WindowsApps problems went away, still cant set it as deafult

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community. My name is Josef.
I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today despite this Gus

May I know if you tried creating a new local administrator user in your PC and try from there?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/cre...

By the way, is this hard drive already formatted as NTFS?
Please double check this via file explorer > my computer > right click on the drive > properties > next to file system

The error crops up because when you try to set the hard drive as default save location it tries to create a new 'WindowsApps' folder. However, it can not make this folder because it already exists and is protected from alterations due to its folder permissions.

What you need to do:

• Take ownership of the hidden WindowsApps folder on your hard drive -
  not the one on C:\ drive (your SSD). The WindowsApps folder will be in the root directly of any other drive.
• Once you have full access, delete the WindowsApps folder from this hard drive,

Information on how to take ownership of WindowsApps folders can be
found here. Remember, in your case, you need to take permission of the old WindowsApps folder, which on a second hard drive should be located in the Root Directory of the D:\ drive.

Once the folder is gone, try setting the hard drive as your new default location. All being well, Windows will create a new WindowsApps folder and you can start using it again.