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

Well, I plowed ahead. Had some scary moments. The first move of Documents ran into a filename that was too long to process. I chose "Skip" and shortly thereafter got "Action cancelled by user - cannot move folder" or something to that effect. When I checked C:\Users\Gary, there was a Documents folder, but no Location tab in the properties. And the E:\Videos\Documents folder was still there. So I found the offending file with the too long filename, changed it. Then I went into C:\Users\Gary and renamed the Documents file to "Delete" and repeated the Restore to Default. A bit into the process I got a weird message saying "Destination folder contains 5600 files with the same name". Skip didn't seem like a good idea based on the previous attempt and no way for "Let me decided for each file". So I selected the only other choice: Replace. This time the process completed without any other messages or errors. But I nearly freaked when I went to C:\Users\Gary and DID NOT SEE DOCUMENTS!. Turns out, it was there - it's the folder I renamed "Delete". So I renamed it "Documents". The restore of Videos was uneventful (good). So in spite of the bumps, it appears the process was successful. As for E:\Gary, it's gone! Weird! But the good thing is that it's gone from the CMD DIR as well! So it looks like you were right about Windows' "slight of hand".

 

Aha!

Well, you did an excellent job given all the snafus thrown at you (filename too big, replace files... but especially the renamed folder being Documents). It really isn't that tricky - the desktop.ini file in the folder has a definition for what the folder is. The folder name could be gobbledeegook and the resource definition would show it as Documents.

That's why the folder E:\Gary showed in Explorer as E:\Videos ... in command prompt, it doesn't rely on the resource definition, so you see E:\Gary. Threw me off for a while and I know how it works *Wink

So where are you now? All of your special folders on C:\Users\Gary (Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos)

Please confirm each folder's location property, then one you're sure things are normalized you can move them to E:

To make this really easy

As you confirm the existing location, just change the drive letter form C: to E:

I chose Videos because it didn't balk when you moved it back before *Biggrin

In the location field:

C:\Users\Gary\Videos
change the drive letter

E:\Users\Gary\Videos
Press the Ok button,
answer yes to move files
answer yes to replace if prompted.
Close the folder properties window.

Check E:\Users\Gary for the Videos folder - should have the videos icon too

Is there joy in Muddville?

Yes, the new location is E:\Users\Gary - it's just easier to change the drive letter than to change the directory tree for each folder.

Let me know how that works.

 

Well, I jumped ahead of you a bit. I DID confirm all the locations for the user folders were correct in C:\Users\Gary. But it seemed pretty straight forward to move them back to E:. So I created a new Gary folder and moved Videos. Are you ready? The Gary folder disappeared and the Videos folder was created in the root of E:. So I figured a Gary folder in that location was cursed and created one with a different name and tried that. Same thing. So what I'm doing now is putting all the user folders back in default and moving the files to folders on E:. I can live with that. At least there's no apparent system problem.

 

So, you are able to recreate the original problem *Biggrin

I'm curious now.
Do the folders on E:\ have the special folder icons for docs, music, pics, and vids?
Are there the special folders under C:\Gary

Which ones (E: or C: ) have location tabs on properties?

What I believe happened is that you expected the location move to place Videos under E:\Gary
What actually happened is the location move put Videos on top of E:\Gary and magically changed the name as File Explorer saw it.

Let me know and we can figure out the best way to amke it work. I think you might still have C:\User\Gary folders, if not now perhaps after logging out or restating the machine. that will really confuse you *Wink

 

All the user folders are back in their default. I moved all the files out of them to folders under E:\Gary. The only downside to this config (and what I tried to "fix" and got all mucked up) is that those folders show under "This PC" and there's nothing in them. But I'll get used to ignoring them. I found a "tutorial" that says you can change the environment variable during installation of the OS. I may try that next time I do a clean re-install. But for now, I'm OK with the current status. Unless you object, I'm ready to mark this "Solved".

 

It's your thread, you'll get no objection from me *Wink

If you want to try again sometime, try changing just the drive letter and pressing OK, then exit the property dialog.
There's really no need to change an environment variable at install.

There is a method of changing the entire User folder location during the install
Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
and

another for changing the User folder after an install.
User Profile - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums
I use this one
You might want to look at Libraries as an option - I also use Libraries

Library - Include Folder in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
Library Save Location - Set in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
Set your default save location in each Library to the corresponding folder on E:

But those are reading material - go ahead an mark this solved

Thanks, it was my pleasure working with you.

Bill
.

 

Thanks for everything Slartybart!

 

You're most welcome Gla4g