Windows 10: Mouse Hover Over Folder Shows File Size Much Greater Than Properties Shows It

Greetings:


I have a folder containing photos, Word docs, music, etc. A mouse hover over the folder shows a file size of approximately 20 GB. But when right click on the folder and select properties, it shows a size of roughly 6 GB. Which is it and why the discrepancy?


Thanks

:)

 

Shows a different file size when hovering as opposed to properties.


This is an issue I just discovered. I have a folder on my desktop that is 10.8GB. It has many files and folders inside of it. When I hover my mouse over it, it shows the correct total size of the contents of the folder i.e. 10.8GB. However, if I right click the folder and go to properties, it only shows 5.67GB. It's doing this because it's not counting all the files and folders. In properties it only lists about half of the total files and folders for some reason.

I have dragged this folder onto an external drive and then right clicked it from there and it shows the correct size from that drive, but not the drive my OS is on.

I really want to like Windows 10, but only a few days into using it and I am having lots of issues, and I haven't even done anything on the computer yet. I'm still just trying to get all my programs and files moved over.

 

Shows a different file size when hovering as opposed to properties.

Welcome to TenForums @22878

The reason is permissions. You do not have access to some of the folders there, and when Properties is counting the files it is doing so with your security permissions. It cannot count the files in folders for which you do not have permission.

Just because you don't have permission to open a folder and look inside it, doesn't mean you can't copy it to somewhere else. The copies are owned by you, so you have full permission to access them. Doubly so if you copy to a usb stick, because the Fat32 format they use doesn't support file permissions anyway.

Now you have a copy on another drive, rename the problem folder on your desktop, then copy the folder from the external drive back onto your desktop. Because you now own all the files and folders in it you should see the same size reported by hovering the mouse and by Properties.

Those permissions issues would have been exactly the same in every version of Windows, 2000, Vista, XP, 7 or 8.

 

Shows a different file size when hovering as opposed to properties.

I deleted the folder from my desktop. Then copied it back over from my external drive where right-click > properties shows the correct amount of files, folders, and total size, but I am having the same issue as before. If you check out that link in my last post, other users are having the same exact issue and they seem to suggest it has something to do with file name length. They say it's a bug that appeared in a recent Windows update.