Windows 10: Why is the right pane of File Explorer showing the wrong folders?

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In File Explorer, if a folder is selected in the left navigation pane, the normal behaviour is for the right pane to display sub-folders of that selected folder.

The attached screenshot shows strange behaviour.

If the library "1Documents" is selected in the left pane, there are three sub-folders: Documents, Downloads, and Downloads. (The Downloads folder with the yellow icon is an empty folder that I can't remove. It's discussed in another post.)

I would expect to see exactly the same three sub-folders in the right pane.

In fact, the entire combined contents of Documents and Downloads are shown. You can see that "Anki" is displayed twice. One instance of Anki is in the Downloads folder. The other instance is data that is used by Anki, and is in the Documents folder.

BTW: "Beyond Compare" is a data file in the Documents folder. All other visible files in the right pane are in the Downloads folder.

How can I rectify this issue so that only three folders are shown in the right pane?

Thanks.
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:)

 

Right clicking in right pane of file explorer WINDOWS 10

This system is effectively a clean install (just the apps mentioned were installed after windows).

Avast is NOT the problem, I installed it to see if there was a virus causing the issue, same with Spybot for malware.

"This is a recent reinstall of the PC. Applications installed: MS Office 2008, Lightroom, Photoshop. VLC Media player, Avast (free edition) and Spybot search and destroy."

This only occurred after windows became fully updated.

 

Right clicking in right pane of file explorer WINDOWS 10

Hello,

I hope you can help.

I have a bug in Windows 10.

In file explorer, whenever I RIGHT click in the RIGHT pane, explorer crashes.

System has latest updates installed.

SFC finds no problems.

I've run virus and spyware scans.

This is a recent reinstall of the PC. Applications installed: MS Office 2008, Lightroom, Photoshop. VLC Media player, Avast (free edition) and Spybot search and destroy.

Problem was not there until yesterday.

 

I assume you have been moving the location of your default Windows libraries. Have you considered, with a full copy of your data offline, resetting the location without copying your files back to c: drive. Then redoing it. Could I ask how you did the move? Did you use the Windows "Move" facilities found on the "Location" tab when you look at the library properties?

 

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Thanks for your response.

Correct *Smile

It's one of the few Win 10 improvements over Win XP. In XP, it all had to be done by the registry (roughly 8 hacks - not bad). I can't remember how I moved the Win 7 folders.

I was quite willing to have a go - but the contents of my right pane have now changed relative to my OP *Smile

You can see that (for the library root only), the right pane separates out the files into sub-folders (as in Win 7 library roots). I think it might have been caused yesterday when I used one of Brink's excellent tutorials to set all my right panes to "Details" view by default.

So, I'll keep this current setup - at least for a few weeks. I need to catch up with all the time I've wasted on this new laptop, trying to convert it to simple XP - or at least Win 7. I'm expecting Windows 11 to show every file folder in the left navigation pane.

However, I'll keep your suggestion in mind. Can you please explain what you mean by this - a list of the actual steps might help:

Thanks.
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What I meant by resetting. When you are the proper library, I say proper library as I'm not sure in your case which is which, and you invoke properties and click on location tab there is an option to restore to default. It will likely ask you do you want to copy files, at least I'm pretty sure it does. Given your C:drive is likely sized for OS and programs and not all your data, I don't think you want to move data files back to C:.

Not sure about Brink's tutorial, they are excellent and I've followed a quite a few myself. With library locations reset you could start File explorer, and select "Options" from the ribbon. This will present a restore defaults button. Having not reviewed Brink's tutorial I'm not sure if clicking this is appropriate. Does Brink's tutorial offer a "Restore" route.

Again I would ensure your data is safe and by safe I mean a copy off your machine. Installing Windows is a doable, recreating some data can't be done.