SOLVED How to show local (not OneDrive) folders in Explorer after Anniversary Update

[JorgenJ]

Hi!
Just upgraded to Anniversary Update. Now I am having trouble seeing my local (not OneDrive) Pictures and Documents folders in Explorer.
Under "This PC" I can see locals folders for "Desktop", "Downloads", "Music" etc., but for "Documents" and "Pictures" I can only see the corresponding OneDrive folders (the "Documents" and "Pictures" icons show the little green checkmark):

How do I change this behaviour so that I see my local ("Documents" and "Pictures") folders under "This PC" (like "C:\Users\XXXX\Documents")?
I have managed to change the default save locations to the local folders (works OK):
- under OneDrive | Settings | AutoSave | Documents and Pictures > "This PC only
and
- Settings | System | Storage | Save Locations | New documents will save to: "This PC (C: )

Best regards
JorgenJ

May be related to this?

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-folder/6c93ff76-3d1f-4e42-9149-9df202c722b8

 

[Regedit32]

Hi JorgenJ,

Welcome to the Forum.

I'm curious whether paths are muddled up in a couple of Registry keys.

If you right-click on Start then left-click on Command Prompt and type / copy & paste the following:

reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"

Press Enter key

Type / copy & paste the following:

reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"

Press Enter key

Do you get results similar to the sample image below?

If not can you post what results you get instead?

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[JorgenJ]

Hi Regedit32,

Here is the output (notice the two GUIDs at the bottom of "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders", seems to be the only difference?): (image also below)

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\jjoha>reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Common AppData REG_EXPAND_SZ %ProgramData%
Common Desktop REG_EXPAND_SZ %PUBLIC%\Desktop
Common Documents REG_EXPAND_SZ %PUBLIC%\Documents
Common Programs REG_EXPAND_SZ %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Common Start Menu REG_EXPAND_SZ %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Common Startup REG_EXPAND_SZ %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Common Templates REG_EXPAND_SZ %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
CommonMusic REG_EXPAND_SZ %PUBLIC%\Music
CommonPictures REG_EXPAND_SZ %PUBLIC%\Pictures
CommonVideo REG_EXPAND_SZ %PUBLIC%\Videos
{3D644C9B-1FB8-4f30-9B45-F670235F79C0} REG_EXPAND_SZ %PUBLIC%\Downloads

C:\Users\jjoha>reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
AppData REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming
Desktop REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
Favorites REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\Favorites
History REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
Local AppData REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local
My Music REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\Music
My Video REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\Videos
NetHood REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
PrintHood REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts
Programs REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Recent REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
SendTo REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
Start Menu REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Startup REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Templates REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B} REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Cache REG_EXPAND_SZ C:\Users\jjoha\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache
Cookies REG_EXPAND_SZ C:\Users\jjoha\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCookies
My Pictures REG_EXPAND_SZ C:\Users\jjoha\Pictures
Personal REG_EXPAND_SZ C:\Users\jjoha\Documents
{F42EE2D3-909F-4907-8871-4C22FC0BF756} REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\OneDrive\Documents
{0DDD015D-B06C-45D5-8C4C-F59713854639} REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\OneDrive\Pictures

Regards
Jorgen

 

[Regedit32]

That appears to be perfectly fine.

You're using OneDrive so there are guids for that too which is normal.

I opted out of OneDrive, so I'll need to perhaps opt in to take a look at how it affects my own folders.

Hopefully, someone else on our community has seen this and will have some ideas for you in the mean while.

 

[JorgenJ]

OK.
One interesting observation: Under both "OneDrive" and "This PC", the "Documents" and "Pictures" folders have decorated icons. As far as I know the icons used under "OneDrive" should be generic/plan folder icons...

So, it looks like the local and OneDrive "Documents" and "Picture" Explorer folders are somewhat damaged (under "This PC" the location is wrong, under "OneDrive" the icons are wrong).

Another observation:

When right clicking "Documents" | Properties I only see 5 tabs:

- General
- Sharing
- Security
- Previous Versions
- Customize

There is no Location tab.

When right clicking "Pictures" | Properties I can see 6 tabs:

- Location
- Previous Versions
- Customize
- General
- Sharing
- Security

The Location tab shows:

"C:\Users\jjoha\OneDrive\Pictures"

When clicking "Restore Defaults" it changes to:

C:\Users\jjoha\Pictures

However, when clicking Apply or OK I first get the "Move Folder" dialog ("Do you want to move all of the files..."), then when selecting "NO" (I do not want to move stuff from OneDrive to my local Pictures folder), I get the "Folder Redirection" dialog ("Do you want to redirect folder "Pictures" ... If you proceed with redirection you will never be able to ...). When selection "YES" I get an error message "The folder can't be moved here", "Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that that can't be redirected. Access is denied".

Both "Documents" and "Pictures" are stuck at pointing to OneDrive :-(

 

[JorgenJ]

Hello again!
Your help on registry dumps lead to the solution! Thanks!

Under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

just delete:

{F42EE2D3-909F-4907-8871-4C22FC0BF756} REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\OneDrive\Documents
{0DDD015D-B06C-45D5-8C4C-F59713854639} REG_EXPAND_SZ %USERPROFILE%\OneDrive\Pictures

 

[Regedit32]

Nice detective work

Thanks for letting us know.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[Saltgrass]

There was an answer over in the Microsoft forum which suggested modifying the desktop.ini folder. Looks like same user as this thread.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...explorer/53694754-047a-4b14-a0c1-66d2a4afcfb9

 

[JorgenJ]

Hi Saltgrass,
Yes, it turned out that the changed icons for "Documents" and "Pictures" under "OneDrive" was caused by two desktop.ini files in the C:\Users\jjoha\OneDrive\Documents and C:\Users\jjoha\OneDrive\Pictures folders (somehow they where placed there after the update to 1607, I do not think they should be there in a standard Win 10 installation).
As suggested by Ramesh Srinivasan, by deleting these two files the folder icons reverted back to the plain orange icons normally used in Explorer under "OneDrive" (and deleting the two registry entries mentioned above fixed the redirects for "Documents" and "Pictures" under "This PC").