Windows 10: Quick Access Bar Is Still Broken: The List Disappears Upon Changing the Order

I've been searching for this solution for the longest time, and can't seem to find one that works.


Here's the problem: A while ago, I had aQuick Access QA list of folders I usually use inFile Explorer FE. It was a list of about 20-odd count of folders. Then one day, I decided to change the order of the folders. The QA list collapsed and refused to open. On top of that, QA seems to be connected to showing the frequent folders upon fresh opening of the FE. So that disappeared too. I checked online for a solution, and no one provides a real one. Each time I look for one, a Microsoft representative comes to help, they give some weak solution that doesn't work, and then the thread dies.


I found that the only way of bringing it back is to pin another folder to the list. Then QA expands and the whole list appears again. Here's the caveat: I don't want the new link; it's just some random folder in my directory hierarchy just so that it reappears. And...if I ever decide to remove that particular list item from QA, we're back to square one; the list disappears and I'm stuck adding another random folder to the list. I tried to delete another one I actually wanted and then add it back, but it seems to remember those even though I'm sure this folder list is nowhere on the computer and won't let those reopen the list.


I thought that maybe, since this was a legitimate problem that has, at least, been posted by another user, and never reached an actual solution, that Microsoft would have taken note and fixed it in an upcoming update. But no, and it's been years now since I haven't had QA.


Does anyone have a solution to fix this? I already tried resetting to folder settings under the QA options menu; that didn't work last time. And I also tried to delete a folder under the AppData/Local/Roaming/Whatever folder, and the one they told me to delete doesn't exist. Is there any way to fix this?

:)

 

Quick Access bar

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

We would be glad to help you with the issue you are facing today. I understand the difficulty.

Remove items from Quick access.

I would suggest you to follow the below steps.

• Right click on the file or folder.
• Select the option “unpin from the quick access”

To pin items to an item already on the quick access bar.

Follow the below steps.

I would suggest you to create folder in the desktop screen & place all the files or folder which need to pin to the quick access.

• Open the quick access.
• Select the Desktop option.
• Right click on the folder & select the option “pin to quick access”

Hope this helps in resolving the issue. If the issue persists, do get back to us. We will be happy to assist you.



Thank you.

 

Quick Access Not Working

Hi Dustin,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

Follow the below steps to repair the broken database of Quick Access.

Method 1:

Before repairing the database, try to disable and then re-enable Quick Access to see if it helps. To disable and re-enable Quick Access, follow the below steps:

Step 1: To remove frequent folders and recent files list from Quick Access, open File Explorer > click on View tab in Ribbon >
click on Options > Change folder and search options to open Folder Options.

Step 2: You’ll have to uncheck the following two check-boxes present under the Privacy section to disable Quick Access:

• Show recently used files in Quick Access.
  
• Show frequently used folders in Quick Access.
  

Step 3: Click Apply and Exit. The action will instantly remove these two sections from Quick Access in File Explorer. (To clear your Quick Access history press the ‘Clear’ button against Clear File Explorer History).

Step 4: Then, check
the following two check-boxes again to enable Quick Access that you did in
Step2.

• Show recently used files in Quick Access.
  
• Show frequently used folders in Quick Access.
  

Step 5: Restart the PC once and check the issue and if the issue persist, follow the
Method 2.

Method 2:

The Method 2 will repair the broken database of Quick Access.

Step 1: Open File Explorer and paste this folder path: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations in the address bar and hit Enter.

Step 2: Once the folder is opened, press ‘Ctrl’ key and the ‘A’ from your keyboard to select all of its contents and delete it.

Step 3: Do the same for this folder path as well: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

Step 4: Restart the PC once and check the issue.

Hope it helps.

Shafeeq Ali Khan

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Quick Access order changes

I'm not sure if this will stop them from changing order, as I never see my Quick Access list change after doing this, but have you disabled both options in the Privacy section of Folder Options? Click "View" at the top of the File Explorer, and click on the "Options" box all the way to the top right of the screen. Folder Options will appear. On the current tab, "General", there should be a section at the bottom with two Quick Access history related functions. Disable them both.

I created 3 new folders and pinned them to Quick Access, and after opening the 2nd and 3rd folder numerous times without opening the 1st folder, none of them changed and remained in the order of when I added them to Quick Access or how I rearranged them. Once again, I'm not entirely sure this will do it, as I rarely use Quick Access, but I haven't noticed any of my pins rearranged after disabling the two options. Either my Quick Access isn't doing it's job or this really stops it from doing that.