Windows 10: I have Schrodenger's folders: they simultaneously exist and don't exist! See body for...

While troubleshooting something else now solved, my friend and I discovered some kind of bug that is far more concerning. I have "lost" folders!!

C: has a "TempDocs" folder empty that is invisible. I know this because when I tried to create another one identically named after thinking the first one I made didn't create properly for whatever reason, it wanted to merge the two folders because one already existed. However, it is nowhere to be seen.

The original documents location: C:\Users\username\TempDocs2 has the same problem: doesn't show up, but exists and wants to merge when you create a new folder. Which continues to not show up.

And in Explorer properties, I have already selected to show hidden files and folders.

So my friend talked me through Win-R DOS app. DIR command showed no Documents folder. So we tried to create one:

"mkdir TempDocs2".

Error: "A subdirectory of file TempDocs2 already exists."

So we tried "del TempDocs".

"Could not find C:\Users\username\TempDocs*".

So we tried "rmdir Documents"

to which we saw "Access is denied".

So... the file exists... it does not show up even in DOS... then DOS says it doesn't exist AND it says it does exist Schrodenger's DOS!, and when we try to remove it, it says Access is Denied.

We tried the same with the C root drive hidden TempDocs folder "cd \" "dir" not shown "mkdir" already exists "rmdir" access denied "del" could not find.

I now have three empty folders, recently created and fortunately empty, that simultaneously exist and not exist, that are preventing me from having anything else where they are of the same name. Grrr!!

...But also very concerning. What if there were files in there? I want to know how to find them! And show them! And delete them! And create ones of the same name that show up! Future me thinks this is important before I totally forget about it and just get really confused later on. Also, I REALLY don't want this to happen with folders with important documents actually in them.

:)

 

Showing folders that no longer exist.


I deleted a handful of folders a couple days ago while under Win7x64, now i've upped to Win10 it's showing those folders under pictures. obviously i can't access folders that don't exist, which also means I can't delete them, because they don't exist......but they are still listed?

Ideas?

 

Folder in library does not exist, cannot delete library folder


Thanks for the replies. Here's my update.

ArazelEternal: I ran SFC, DISM and CHKDSK on both the C & D drives. No problems reported and the folder remains in my Libraries Folder.
Brink: Yes, I can turn off the Libraries folder in the backup set but that doesn't fix the problem of the non-existent folder remaining in the library. That's the folder I'm trying to remove. The images show what I'm seeing in the folders listing of File Explorer. The first image shows the message that pops up when I first clink on the Pictures folder that's highlighted. The second image is what I see when I right click and choose properties. As you can see in the D: drive listing, there is no Documents folder there.

 

Autocorrect in Win10... basically non-existent(?)

In this case, we suggest following the steps below to work around the issue:

• On the Cortana search box, type Typing Settings and press
  Enter.
• Turn off Autocorrect misspelled words and Highlight misspelled words.
• Restart your PC.
• Do step 1 and 2 but this time turn on Autocorrect misspelled words
  and Highlight misspelled words.
• Restart your PC.
• Check if the issue still exist.

If you have questions, please let us know.