diff --git a/taglib/toolkit/tfile.cpp b/taglib/toolkit/tfile.cpp
index 7847a71fe..ac4fd533d 100644
--- a/taglib/toolkit/tfile.cpp
+++ b/taglib/toolkit/tfile.cpp
@@ -61,8 +61,15 @@ File::File(const char *file)
 {
   d = new FilePrivate(::strdup(file));
 
-  d->readOnly = !isWritable(file);
-  d->file = fopen(file, d->readOnly ? "rb" : "rb+");
+  // First try with read/write mode, if that fails, fall back to read only.
+  // We can't use ::access() since that works in odd ways on some file systems.
+
+  d->file = fopen(file, "rb+");
+
+  if(d->file)
+    d->readOnly = false;
+  else
+    d->file = fopen(file,"rb");
 
   if(!d->file)
     debug("Could not open file " + String(file));
diff --git a/taglib/toolkit/tfile.h b/taglib/toolkit/tfile.h
index d736dcb90..02c87816f 100644
--- a/taglib/toolkit/tfile.h
+++ b/taglib/toolkit/tfile.h
@@ -198,11 +198,15 @@ namespace TagLib {
     /*!
      * Returns true if \a file can be opened for reading.  If the file does not
      * exist, this will return false.
+     *
+     * \deprecated
      */
     static bool isReadable(const char *file);
 
     /*!
      * Returns true if \a file can be opened for writing.
+     *
+     * \deprecated
      */
     static bool isWritable(const char *name);