I would just add, it appears people are not reading the thread, restarting Cubase is not necessary.
My guess is that it has to do with Cubase holding onto a file as an active file whenever you play preview that file. It won’t let you rename the file as Cubase is actively accessing it in a play preview buffer. If the file was allowed to get renamed, it would break the play preview functionality.
The issue is that even after you’ve finished play previewing, Cubase keeps the file hostage until another file is previewed. There may be some important functional reason for this that we don’t know, some reason that Cubase needs to keep holding on to the most recent previewed file, but it breaks the renaming functionality as well. A bug for sure.
Actually, it’s looks more complex than simply using the Play tool to release the lock on the audio file because sometimes an audio file gets two locks on it and only one is released with the Play tool. The other lock stays there until the project is closed (as revealed by using resmon.exe to search for .wav files that are locked). Also, it seems that when I open my test project Cubase locks some audio files straight away, so there are audio clips in there which I can’t rename right from the start, and never will be able to rename! I haven’t found a pattern yet…
Mike.
Don’t be ridiculous. This is a manual, not a video game FAQ. You’re obviously not going to find obscure workarounds in it.
Ah!
And issue is still exists 9.5.30
I just figured out how to rename an audio file that Cubase didn’t want to let me rename. I selected its event in the project window and did Bounce Selection. I was able to rename the bounced file, and the old file was now unused, so I was able to delete it.
This was in Cubase 10 Pro, but I imagine it would work in 9.5.
Steinberg should fix this.
You can temporary disable musical mode in the control bar to release realtime cache and allow Cubase rename the file.
This worked for me;
Start Cubase “As Administrator”.
(Also, make sure that the “User Account Control” is not disabled but set to its default setting. )
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Are you sure about that? Changing the user level wouldn’t let a locked file be modified.
It is frustrating to say the least that this issue persists and yet you Steinberg have not - appeared to - address yet another bug before yet offering more upgrades, with the same issues.
oh wow this issue is still present even today
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“to rename a locked file, preview another file and you can then rename the first file that was locked.”
You are CORRECT! and solved a years long issue for me 
Cubase probably keeps the file “open” when it previews, so no writing allowed.
btw, I see you guys with later versions, but this goes ALL the way back to version 6. You the MAN!
cheers!
Not working for me - Cubase Pro 12.0.52. Really annoying.