File Explorer keeps going to Desktop

Anonymous

When I browse and view files, File Explorer keeps going to Desktop by itself. It is easy to correct this by simply clicking the back button (<-). I would not mind if this happens once in a while, but it happens almost constantly, so it is a major nuisance.

For example, suppose that I am looking at pictures in folder E:\Pictures\2024\Events\foo, open a picture with Photos, and use it to navigate to different photos, then File Explorer will suddenly jump to Desktop. This is almost 100% reproducible. I will have to click the back button to get back to E:\Pictures\2024\Events\foo.

Could anyone offer a remedy for this?

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41 answers

Anonymous

2024-06-02T21:09:31+00:00

I have finally sent the feedback: https://aka.ms/AAqookt
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Anonymous

2024-06-07T10:09:43+00:00

Hi, hipswich

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

We understand that you are only experiencing this issue when opening the Photos folder and our tests have not been able to reproduce the issue, so it is possible that this is a bug in File Explorer, you can submit this issue and your ideas and suggestions through the Feedback Hub, and the development team will regularly review submissions for ideas or fixes. Please share the feedback link here after submitting as it will allow others on the forum to vote for your submission, including me. More votes will lead to more visibility and higher priority to the development team.

Sincerely

Nicholas | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

It is definitely a bug in File Explorer and how it refreshes the tabs. It's annoying. It could be linked to OneDrive syncing but I'm not sure. This exact same behaviour has been happening to me for a few weeks already and it has little to do with what you're doing (working on Word docs, viewing photos, opening/closing files etc.). It seems to happen randomly or triggered by something in the background. I didn't know it's possible to navigate back to the previous folder with the back button, this helps while we wait for Microsoft to fix it...
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Anonymous

2024-06-07T12:09:50+00:00

Thank you for confirming this.

I feel it is getting worse. For example, I often have half a dozen tabs in File Explorer and move files between them. Many tabs (e.g., 4 or 5 out of half a dozen) frequently go to Desktop. This means that I have to click the back button for each of them to get things going. This is more than a minor nuisance now.
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Anonymous

2024-06-14T14:35:28+00:00

The same thing happens to me; when I open a Word document, an image, a Photoshop file, or an Illustrator file, or practically any file, File Explorer keeps going to Desktop by itself. It even happens when I rename a file or copy it within the same folder; the explorer goes to the Desktop on Windows 11. By the way, I uninstalled OneDrive right after I bought my laptop (I bought it in April) because it kept wanting me to log in to back up my files. But I don't know what causes it to always go to the Desktop, and it's annoying that the file explorer does that.

I hope someone can give us a solution to fix the Windows 11 File Explorer.
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Anonymous

2024-06-26T01:48:13+00:00

I too have this issue, funnily enough also a developer with the usual suite Git VS etc. what i have observed is it happens more often when plugging in / removing a USB drive of some description. Perhaps this is a side effect of a filesystem refresh?

Not sure what else could do it there doesnt seem to be anything untoward in the event viewer that i can tell.
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