SOLVED How can I sort on Folder Size?

[gcohen6]

I want to be able to sort on folder size. Using Windows 10 Home

Here's why:

I copied all the contents of one folder to another. But, some folders in the destination folder were empty. There are thousands of folders. I want to sort on folder size to see which ones are smaller and then just recopy them.

I want to do this from a window of the folders on the desktop, not in DOS. I know Microsoft calcs the size, because if you hold your mouse over the folder, it gives it to you. I can use WinDirStat to sort on folder size, but I can't use it to copy files.

I looked at every possible column choice and thought I had it with Total Size, but that didn't work.

Any suggestions?

 

[davehc]

I presume you mean in the File manager.
Select all the folders at once, and then select "View" in the top menu. There you have the option to group them, which includes by size.

 

[gcohen6]

No, that doesn't do it. That will only sort FILES, not FOLDERS. Sorry.

 

[gcohen6]

Here is a picture of what I want to sort. As you can see, the onnly file that was sorted, was the 1K file. All the other FOLDERS are still in alphabetical order.

 

[gcohen6]

Here is the thing that really frosts my butt; I can hover my mouse over the folder and it calcs the folders size! What would it take for Microsoft to add that as a choice in column options?

 

[davehc]

It DOES sort the folders, ascending or descending.
As I said, Select all of the folders.

 

[gcohen6]

OK I'll try it again, but I did select all of the folders the last time. I clicked on the sort by and selected size.

 

[gcohen6]

Argggg It still doesn't work. Here is the picture of what I did

 

[davehc]

I can only see a portion of your sorting, but, it looks to me like they have remained in alphabetical order. The sizes are not shown, so no suggestions on that.
I have just tried it again, on another section of my computer, and it worked 100%

I have read, (I cannot try it due to a difference in my setup1) that if you move over to the search box and type in there "size", you will get the needed options?

Perhaps, meanwhile, another member can pop in here and suggest what your problem is???

 

[gcohen6]

I know what my problem is, it's called Microsoft! LOL...

And I did try typing size in the search box, no joy.

 

[gcohen6]

I downloaded a third party software called FolderSizeForWindows. It's cute. It does open up a second window, with all the folders and their sizes. It is in a column and I can sort on them.

but I can't select the folder from that window. I can only double click it and it will go to the actual folder in the regular window. I can't select more than one.

So my original purpose is still not available. I wanted to find all the folders that were under 30K and re-copy the original folders to the new folders I made so it would fill in all the files it originally left out from th first time I tried to copy them all. Because windows copy is stupid.

I am getting to the point where I may just copy them all over again.

Maybe there is another 3rd party software that just adds a Folder Size column as a choice in the regular window.

BTW, thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

 

[davehc]

I have been experimenting!
I tried this:
Open File Explorer
Select "This PC" in the left pane to search the computer.
Type "size: " into the search box (the one over top right) and in the drop down box, select Gigantic.
Select "details" from the View tab.
Click the Size column to sort by largest to smallest.
Select "group by size"

This gave me three groups, large medium and small.
Could help?

 

[gcohen6]

It's close. But i finally found a 3rd party software that worked for me. It's called FolderSize, from MindGems. it's freeware and it let me sort by Folder size.

Would have been nice if Microsoft had just added a column choice. Not sure why they didn't.

Thanks for your help.

 

[davehc]

Thank you for staying with me. Interesting and useful experience.
And tks for marking as solved - helps a lot in future posts.

 

[Bighorn]

And tks for marking as solved - helps a lot in future posts.

It's not showing as Solved on the main page, actually nothing is showing as Solved today until after opening a category.

 

[davehc]

?It's showing solved for me??

 

[Windows hater]

It's close. But i finally found a 3rd party software that worked for me. It's called FolderSize, from MindGems. it's freeware and it let me sort by Folder size.

Would have been nice if Microsoft had just added a column choice. Not sure why they didn't.

Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Folder Size worked for me as well....

Free Folder Size Explorer For Windows

Explorer folder sizes in Windows - view largest folders and files. List directory sizes - print folders tree.

www.mindgems.com

 

[Dr. Gibbs]

It DOES sort the folders, ascending or descending.
As I said, Select all of the folders.

View attachment 9033

that's just reverse alphabetical order, which will reverse again to normal ABC top-to-bottom if you click "size" again, because it is not sorting the folders at all; only the loose files, and as it does, it simply sorts the folders ABC..or..ZYX.. accordingly. What we want is to be able to literally see the total size of each respective folder (#subfolders & #total files would be nice as well) in order to easily identify empty to large etc