Windows 10: Documents Location Changed But Property Location Is Correct - ???

Greetings! I tried to search for posts on my issue but all that comes up is advice on how to move your Documents folder. I already did that. I changed my location from my SSD C:\ drive to my data drive E:\. Everything seemed fine until today when I navigated to the E: drive with Windows Explorer. My documents and music folders somehow got moved to a "Videos" folder. The "Gary" folder appears to be gone. However, the Documents shortcuts still work. In fact, the location property for Documents shows the correct (old) path but when I click on Find Target, it takes me to the Videos folder. I'm not sure when this happened. I have a system image but I'm afraid it was created after the fact. (Yes, I have rebooted)







:)

 

Documents folders moved to another location

Kindly access the properties of your Documents folder and check if the location is the default location. Access first your user's folder to see the Documents folder (C:\Users\[your username]\). After accessing your user folder, right click
the Documents folder, and the choose properties. Usually, the default location of the Documents folder is C:\Users\[username]\Documents. If it's different, manually change the location, and then click
Apply, and then OK. After changing the location check if the files' location was also changed.

Kindly share with us the result.

 

Recovery of system after disk failure

When you open the correct Document folder under This PC is the content correct?

Right click on that correct Documents folder to open Properties. What is it's location found on the Location tab?

It may be as easy as the first fix in Shawn's tutorial to move it back under your User name from the Location Tab, since you appear to have found it. There is rarely any doubt that it's the official folder if it has the Documents insignia on it. It may
have just lost it's Location.

 

You can press the Restore default button (changes it back to C:\Users\Gary\Documents) and then perform the move again to the location of your choice. Answer yes to move files if prompted.

 

Thanks. My music files no longer appear in the Music library but restoring the default libraries appears to have had no effect on the Documents library. Note: The folder E:\Gary is not visible in Windows Explorer

 

The user folders and libraries are two different things.

Resetting Libraries just removes all of the referenced folders in the Libraries or re-creates the standard ones if they were deleted and makes them visible on the navigation pane (i think it makes them visible)

In both of the Property screen shots, I see your Documents folder in E:\Gary .

On the View menu ribbon
tick show hidden files

Can you see Gary now?

Try the blue File menu
Folder options
View tab
show protected files ... yes I want to show them

Can you see Gary now?



I'll get back to the other things later.

 

Did you perchance use Settings to move the location of your folders?

 

I already had View>Hidden Files selected. But in poking around I did find that I had changed the default save locations for Documents and Videos. Is that what you mean? I had 2 Documents folders (one in This PC and the other in Libraries) and I tried to "fix" it.

I ran "Shell:UsersFileFolder" in the address bar of File Explorer. The Documents folder properties shows E:\Gary. The Videos folder shows E:\ and that's where it appears in File Explorer and is in fact the folder in which Documents now appears.

 

BTW Slartybart, thanks for helping. I may have been wrong about the default save locations. Either that or I somehow reset them. Is there somewhere else in Setting where they can be changed?

 

The save location in Settings looks ok. I asked because there are Gary and Sharlene folders on E: and that made me think you used Settings > Save locations.

Is this what you want

E:\Gary\Documents
E:\Gary\Music
E:\Gary\Pictures
E:\Gary\Videos
Navigate to C:\Users\Gary
post a screen shot of the folders

Right click Documents (if there)
press the location tab
Post a screen shot

If any of the user folders are there, please post a screen shot of the location tab

Also, launch a Command Prompt
cd e:\
attrib Gary

dir /a
dir /a /s Gary > %TEMP%\listUser.txt

Post a screen shot of the Command Prompt window
also attach %TEMP%\listUser.txt

See: Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Ten Forums - Windows 10 Forums

On the upload file dialog, you can put %TEMP%\listUser.txt in the file field or [ Browse ] to %TEMP% and select listUser.txt

 

E:\Gary\Documents
E:\Gary\Music
E:\Gary\Pictures
E:\Gary\Videos
That would work. I have an SSD sys drive. Although it has plenty of free space, that wouldn't be the case if I stored photos, videos and documents on it. I want all of that on the E: drive. It doesn't look like my wife will use this PC much if at all. I'll worry about her another time. ;-)

Below are the capture images. But the DIR output to the text file does not appear to contain any attribute info. Because it's such a large file, I uploaded only a partial.









listUser.txt

 

Ok, Muisic and Pictures are in C:\Users\Gary - leave them be for now until the hidden Gary folder is resolved.

You told me Videos is on E:\ and the image in post 3 confirms that it is what seems to be the special User folder Videos (icon).
But there is also a regular folder in C:\Users\Gary\Videos. Leave this alone for now too.

You mentioned: The Videos folder shows E:\ and that's where it appears in File Explorer and is in fact the folder in which Documents now appears.

Please post a screenshot of the location tab on E:\Videos\Documents
Also let me see a top level list of E:\Videos, I don't need a full sub level list
Cmd
e:
cd Videos
dir /a

E:\Gary only has a read-only attribute - that wouldn't hide it in explorer.

I took a quick look at the listing for E:\Gary and Documents does show up.

It's after 2 am here. I'll look deeper tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the screenshots and list output.

 

The regular videos folder was probably created by my Adobe PhotoShop/Premiere Elements software.





E:\Gary\Videos is visible only in File Explorer:




Thanks for sticking with this. I really appreciate it.

 

I can't figure out why E:\Gary can't be seen in File Explorer.

Sooooo .... let's try to get the special User folders back to normal

These are ok per the location tab you posted
Music C:\Users\Gary\Music
Pictures C:\Users\Gary\Pictures




Documents: E:\Videos\Documents location points to E:\Gary\Documents
Videos: E:\Videos location points to E:\Videos (Could you confirm that with the properties> location tab)

Try this in this order

On E:\Videos\Documents
Select properties > location tab
Press the [ Restore Default ] button
Yes to move files if prompted

On E:\Videos
Select properties > location tab
Press the [ Restore Default ] button
Yes to move files if prompted

That should put the two user folders back on C:\Users\Gary - please confirm the locations after restoring the default

If everything looks good, then all that is left is to figure out why E:\Gary isn't visible in File Explorer
Then put the folders where you want them. I might suggest a different structure if this becomes a sticky mess

Something like E:\Usr\Gary\Userfolders - but see if the above resolves the issue.

It's very possible that E:\Gary is really E:\Videos and is masked by the slight of hand Windows does with the special folders.

 

Sorry for the delay. I didn't get a notification that you posted. Anyway, all sounds good but one of the folder locations you asked me to confirm is incorrect: Videos location property is E:\Gary.