An "Access Denied" Loop

[Emberfall777]

See attached image. Current Vortex version as far as I'm aware. When I click "allow access" it closes then opens again like two seconds later. I've set it to the recommended location as well as a couple others that would feasibly make sense. I will note I'm using an external hard drive so I don't know if that has anything to do with this. Any ideas? I'm set as admin so it's not like I don't have permissions myself. No mods are active or even installed at the moment. When I try to install I get this problem. Appears to be a Starfield specific problem but I haven't tested any of my other games in a long time so who knows this could apply to others as well.