Cursor moves to left or selects all text when renaming files in windows explorer. Windows 11

Anonymous
2022-02-01T15:12:11+00:00

Hi,

I am struggling with a new issue in File Explorer. I have recently updated to Windows 11, but I think this issue has started since this version update.

When I try to rename a file or folder in Windows file explorer, I am unable to place my cursor at a particular point in the filename - eg to insert some letters or numbers.

Instead, wherever I place my cursor, within a second, the whole file name has been selected, which means I start typing a new filename from scratch. This is different to how it has previously behaved, and very annoying.

A related issue - when I am renaming a file saving a file from within a program, a slightly different issue occurs. I put my cursor at the end of a filename, eg,to add a new version number to the filename, but the cursor jumps to the left - to the start of the filename.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-05-25T17:01:57+00:00

    I have the impression this issue (selecting the whole filename) happens when the length of the path + filename is too long. Not sure exactly how long as I did not count. If you use a shorter path or filename the problem is gone. You may want to test and confirm.
    Also I never change a filename when the sync to OneDrive or SharePoint is still running, just wait a few moments..

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-25T17:17:47+00:00

    Not for me. It also happens with fairly short file names

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-25T17:34:44+00:00

    Anderson S. de Souza This Windows 11 bug has gone on for more than a year now. Is there a way to escalate it?

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-25T18:39:28+00:00

    It happens in synced one drive files. Does not happen on Dropbox or pc files. Only thing I have worked out is to hit the end key and quickly put a space in then you can re edit the file name without it selecting all the text.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-05-25T20:19:37+00:00

    Such a head wrecking issue. Seeing a lot of my older files named as 1.xlsx etc due to me not noticing at the time that Explorer had re-grabbed the entire file name when all I wanted to do was append a number to the end. Shocking from Microsoft

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