Multiple "documents" and "pictures" folders appearing

[Danmccready]

Having a bit of a strange situation where, whenever I open file explorer multiple copies of the documents and pictures folders appear in the side bar. When I click on them they are all exactly the same. It starts off with one then a second appears then a third. Thirteen is the most I have seen so far.
Any idea what is causing this or how I get it to stop? (Picture attached)

 

[Trouble]

Hello Dan and welcome to the forum.
IDK.... definitely a weird problem going on.
I think the first thing I would try, would be to rebuild the Icon and thumbnail cache and reboot.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-icon-clear-thumbnail-cache-windows-10
If the problem persisted then I would run the native System File Checker
Right click the Start Button and choose Command Prompt (Admin) and in the command prompt window type
sfc /scannow
hit enter
Let it run and see if it finds any issues.

 

[bun yippee]

Might be a bug ... run all of your virus & malware scans & afterwards set a restore point ....

 

[Jake B]

Remember File Explorer will show OneDrive folders. Also remember Libraries have been added to Windows. Libraries are basically where you can store like files in different folders but assocaite them to the same library.

 

[AlyceBarry]

Same problem on my husband's Samsung laptop, with multiple mirror Pictures, Documents, and Videos folders. At present there are 3 Pictures folders, one of which is a subfolder of another Pictures folder. There are also 2 Videos folders, with identical contents, each one containing a subfolder called Videos. I've tried moving files, the system says location and destination are the same. Also, there's a Music folder in the middle of the Pictures folder files, which wasn't true as of a month ago or so. So, I've tried your first remedy, paid $27.95 for the software, it said it fixed some things but didn't fix this. I used your instructions to rebuild the icon cache and clear the thumbnail cache, they didn't fix this. I used the System File Checker, which analyzed for an hour and didn't fix this.