Windows 10: In Windows 11, suddenly Explorer has lost the quick access folder and all my pinned folders.

In Windows 11, suddenly Explorer has lost the quick access folder and all my pinned folders.I tried to follow the recommendations on this Microsoft Community post but couldn't sort it out.I don't have the option "Show recommended section" when I go into Folder Options ⋯, Options, General tab, under PrivacyI also have disabled "Show all folders" in the sidebar, but it didn't make any difference.Currently I try to add a folder to quick access now it shows an error with the file path and saying "A disk error occurred during a read operation". However, I can access the folder normally through th

:)

 

File Explorer W11; Restore Pictures Folder to Quick Access

To restore the Pictures folder to Quick Access in Windows 11 File Explorer, you can follow these steps:

1. Open File Explorer by clicking on the folder icon in the taskbar or by pressing Windows + E on your keyboard.
   
2. In the left pane of File Explorer, right-click on Quick Access and select Options.
   
3. In the Folder Options window, select the General tab.
   
4. Under Privacy, make sure that "Show recently used files in Quick access" and "Show frequently used folders in Quick access" are both checked.
   
5. Click on the Clear button next to "Clear File Explorer history" to remove any history that might be preventing the Pictures folder from appearing in Quick Access.
   
6. Click on the Restore Defaults button to restore the default settings for Quick Access.
   
7. Click on Apply and then on OK to save the changes.
   
8. If the Pictures folder still does not appear in Quick Access, you can manually add it by navigating to the folder in File Explorer, right-clicking on it, and selecting Pin to Quick Access.
   

If these steps do not work, you can try creating a new user account and see if the Pictures folder appears in Quick Access for the new user. If it does, you can copy the contents of your old user account's Pictures folder to the new user account's Pictures folder and continue using the new account.

Let me know if it helps.

 

Can't pin any folder to Quick access in file explorer

This fixed Quick Access for me too and I can now pin folders to Quick Access without the "The parameter is incorrect" error. This fix also brought the "Locked" category with the Quick Access folders to the right click menu of the taskbar icon for File Explorer.
Before this fix I had nothing but "File Explorer", "Unpin from taskbar" and "Close window" showing when right clicking on the taskbar icon. I'm currently missing the "Recent files" category and the ability to pin files or folders to the taskbar. When trying
to pin a file to the taskbar it only shows up in the Quick Access folder.

 

Quick access folder has disappeared

In Windows 11, suddenly Explorer has lost the quick access folder and all my pinned folders. I tried resetting the folders and doing the actions recommended on

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/clear-and-reset-quick-access-folders-in-windows-11.4693/

but they didn't restore it.

The entire interface of Explorer has changed with the default tab being Home and showing an entirely different set of contents than I had just yesterday. I can right click a folder and select Pin to Quick Access but nothing happens.

Is there any way to get quick access and the former configuration back? I use this feature constantly and it's upsetting to lose it.

I did a search in Explorer for "quick access" and got two files like this "C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\wow64_microsoft-windows-lxss-wsl-quick-access_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.22621.1_none_2b1aa6967885680a.manifest"

but I can't open them. Don't really know what they are.