This issue happens when you migrate your site from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 and you have Limited Access users in your site.
My scenario was below.
Problem
- I have a sharepoint 2013 site and a document library inside.
- Have more than 2 sub folders for the document library.
- Few Users are directly given access to the sub folders without any permission on Library and site.
- The above users are getting access denied while accessing the folder where they have been given Read/Contribute access.
Cause
- Since we don't have Limited Access permission level in SharePoint 2013 and when you give users Read/Contribute access to the sub folders, user are not added as Limited Access to the library level.
- still users should be able to access the sub folders directly as access is given.
- This issue mainly happens with Publishing sites as when you activate publishing feature, one more site collection feature gets activated as below
- This feature will prevent users with limited access to access the sub folders in library.
Resolution
Just deactivate the site collection feature and you are good to go.
![LimitedAccess_Deactivated](https://exploresharepointfeatures.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/limitedaccess_deactivated.png?w=680)
The ViewFormPagesLockDown Feature (Site Collection) in SharePoint 2013 is activated and visible by default. This is not the case for previous SharePoint versions.