Windows 10: FOlder renames itself and cant be fixed - Downloads folder has become Documents folder

This is a problem with the system shortcuts for Downloads and Documents getting tangled up together. Corruption in the registry I presume.

The symptom is that I have two "Documents" folders, but one is supposed to be the "Downloads" folder. Both the links jump to the very same actual directory. The Downloads folder has somehow been renamed to "Documents" and points to the "c:/WIndows/Users/XXX/Documents" folder. While there are two shortduts, one has the documents icon and the other the downloads icon.


This has only recently happened as at Jan 2020. I have to suspect a Microsoft update, but cant be sure. Searching this Community, I found a very, very similar issue reported in 2017. The 2017 suggested fix doesnt work for me - and actually it didnt work then either, judging by the comments. However I did try it but when I renamed one folder, after restarting Explorer, it renamed both shortcuts.



The even stranger, I tried to manually add a "Downloads" folder to my user directory, but the system prevents it with the complaint that I cant because "there is already a folder called "Documents". So it is reading the text I typed "Downloads" and converted that to "Documents" and my guess is that this is evidence of it being a registry corruption that ties the two names together.


My own suggested fix;

1. Create a brand new user account

2. Copy all my files to that user.

3. only use the new user from now on

4. wait a few weeks before deleting the old user account unitl I am certain I copied accross everything.

5. Hope that another software update doesnt do again !


Does anyone have an other suggestion of how this can be fixed?

:)

 

Documents folder renamed to Downloads

Last night I was copying Pictures and Documents to external drives as backups.

Now I see two Downloads folders and no documents folder. One downloads folder has the download icon, the other downloads folder has the documents icon, and all the documents. The change does not seem to affect Office and Quicken, they find their files without
a problem. Tried to rename it back to Documents, but it won't rename.

Suggestions?

 

Downloads folder is the Documents folder

Hi Chris,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

I suggest you to Restore to Default the folders and document settings and see if it helps.

Step 1:

Please follow below steps and check if it helps.

• Go to Download folder.
• Right click on the Download Folder and go to Properties.
• In Properties go to Location tab.
• In location Tab Click on Restore Default.

Step 2:

Please follow below steps and check if it helps.

• Go to Documents folder.
• Right click on the Document folder and go to Properties.
• In Properties go to Location tab.
• In location Tab Click on Restore Default.

After performing above steps change the settings as you required and check if it helps.

Hope these information helps, please get back to us for future support, we’ll be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

Documents folder renamed to Downloads

Hi Schulte,

I swill be glad to help you with the issue you have with documents folder.

Did you try to rename both documents folders?

I suggest you to reset folders. Please follow the below steps:

1. Open File Explorer.

2. While in File Explorer, click/tap on the View tab, and click/tap on
Options in the ribbon.

3. Click on the tab that says View and click on Reset Defaults.

Please reply with the results, we are happy to help you further.

Thank you.