How to re-enable the "Expand to Open Folder" option?

Try this:

In the Explorer address bar at the top of the window, append a BACKSLASH to the path.

When I change the path from "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive - mycompany_mycompany\Documents\How-Tos" to "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive - mycompany_mycompany\Documents\How-Tos****" then the Navigation pane suddenly starts syncing with the content window.

Try this:

In the Explorer address bar at the top of the window, append a BACKSLASH to the path.

When I change the path from "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive - mycompany_mycompany\Documents\How-Tos" to "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive - mycompany_mycompany\Documents\How-Tos****" then the Navigation pane suddenly starts syncing with the content window.

I tried this for several different folders, but absolutely nothing happened in Explorer.

The Expand to all folders option still doesn't work.

Bug fixes to Windows 11 File Explorer coming soon

The Windows Latest online article announced a few days ago some fixes to Explorer coming soon to Windows 11.

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 24H2 File Explorer issues, including content overlap in full screen

https://www.windowslatest.com/2025/01/09/windows-11-explorer-overlaps-content-bug/

However, this article unfortunately did not mention the "Expand to all folders" issue.

The Windows Insider blogs also do not mention the issue anywhere.

If anyone has access to the Microsoft Windows development team, on behalf of the many countless thousands of Windows 11 users, we ask that you please report the "Expand to all folders" bug. The problem is WIDESPREAD and occurs on several versions of Windows 11.

For the benefit of this post, here are just some of the forthcoming fixes to File Explorer as reported in recent Windows Insider blogs:

• Fixed an issue where the date/time properties of files were unexpectedly updated in some cases after copying them.
• Fixed an issue where File Explorer may sometimes lose focus on the search box while typing.
• Fixed an issue where when you did a search it may unexpectedly trigger the search happening repeatedly.
• Fixed an issue where the Details Pane icons weren’t responding correctly to theme changes, making it hard to see if you switched from dark to light or vice versa.
• Fixed a black flash in File Explorer that appeared when duplicating a tab.
• Fixed a few issues impacting File Explorer performance and reliability.
• We did some work to help address an issue where File Explorer might hang when browsing a folder with lots of media in it.

Some of these may already have been released last month, while others will be rolled out over the next several weeks or so.

I also noticed a trend in the Microsoft Windows Insider blogs is that in the last 2 months there has been increased attention to fixing bugs in File Explorer. Let's hope they continue to do so.

In the meantime, for those users experiencing the "Expand to all folders" bug, please report this issue in the Microsoft Feedback app.

Rupertsland,

Canada

This solution is working for me on Windows 11 version 23H2:

In addition to enabling "Expand to open folder" I also enabled "Show all folders". With both options enabled, the folder tree expands when I navigate to it from Quick Access or any shortcut on the desktop or taskbar.

The problem was confusing because sometimes the folders expanded and sometimes they didn't. I found out what was happening, the folders expanded when I navigated to an external USB drive for example D:\ and E:\ drive, but not when I navigated to folders on C:\ drive. After I enabled the second option "Show all folders" the folders expanded on all drives including C:.

On my side I confirm Windows 11 24H2 did NOT solve the issue.

And as of the "Show all folders" option it is activated since months on my configuration without any effect on the problem.

Sometimes it seems to work, difficult to determine why, but I'm still using Ctrl-Shift-E multiple times per day...