Wrong calculation of folder size by Windows

Anonymous
2018-06-28T18:16:18+00:00

Hello,

I noticed today that my Windows system does not properly calculate folder sizes.

I'm actually trying to make a backup of all my personal and work content. When I check the whole backup folder size under properties, It shows me around 10 Gb. But when I open this big folder and select a subfolder, It show me 30 Gb... This is kind of really annoying and I think it's a major issue Microsoft should fix ASAP.

I would like to say (because I didn't find anywhere else to post it) that in my opinion, Microsoft lacks ways of collecting feedback from his clients. There is nowhere we can manually report bugs and crashes.

In any ways, I think that showing correct folder sizes is a really basic task that an Operating System should be able to do. Such a bug is inacceptable for a leader like Microsoft, and I honestly consider going along with Apple if this issue does not get quickly fixed. My computer will soon need to be changed in anyways.

Meanwhile, if some of you guys have found ways to go around this major issue, feel free to share them :). Thank you!

Here is my technical information :

Intel Core i7-3720QM 2.60 GHz

64 bits

Windows 10 family version 1803

Installed on 2018-06-20

O.S. version 17134.112

Many thanks is advance,

Antoine

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author
DaveM121 931.2K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2018-06-28T18:35:14+00:00

Hi Antoine_795,

It is widely reported that version 1803 of Windows 10 has introduced a bug into Explorer.exe

It is because it cannot read the metadata of files correctly, it mixes up the size and dimensions for example

Therefore it cannot calculate the size of a folder, especially if it has sub-folders, it also cannot calculate the spare space on a hard drive . . .

In the meantime, while we are waiting for Microsoft to fix this bug:

Click the link below to download a small free utility called Treesize - it is a great utility . . .

Using that tool, you will instantly see the size of all folders (always missing form File Explorer) and where space is being used on your hard drive . . .

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-08-14T15:14:26+00:00

    This has been a known problem with Windows all the way back to Windows XP.  I would be amazed that if after 10 years of knowing that this problem exists, that they are finally going to fix it.  There are some third party File Manager utilities that do it right, but Microsoft has never thought it a big enough issue to bother fixing it.

    @ Thomas Burke: I had used Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 97, Windows Vista, and Windows 8 before. I was not aware of the problem until I used Windows 10. What you said could be true but the problem was not never so glaring or obvious. What I mean is that except for the most discriminating or perceptive users, I doubt people would really add up the sizes of files or folders to get the totals and thus notice the errors. But with Windows 10, you can't help noticing if folders which are supposed to be gigabytes of data suddenly become megabytes, and megabytes of data become just kilobytes.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-08-14T06:05:15+00:00

    my disc is NTFS

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-08-14T01:35:58+00:00

    This has been a known problem with Windows all the way back to Windows XP.  I would be amazed that if after 10 years of knowing that this problem exists, that they are finally going to fix it.  There are some third party File Manager utilities that do it right, but Microsoft has never thought it a big enough issue to bother fixing it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-08-14T01:32:08+00:00

    What is it you are trying to say with that link?  It does not seem to address the topic of this thread, which is to accurately compute the file directory size.

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