Windows 11 File Explorer EXTREMELY Slow Unless Restarted Every Few Minutes

Not sure what it is in your case but I just tested a folder with over 2,200 stock images to be used with graphic design on Windows 11 and it loads fine.

To note, thumbnails at extra large require about 600MB of RAM for about 2,200 images. This increases the size of Windows thumbnails cache on the drive by 100MB.

It also must reload all the thumbnails from storage every time you go back into the folder and cache it all in RAM so drive speed (SSD verses HDD, etc), drive free space (including drives over 50% full hitting a speed loss, TRIM issues, low on space, etc), RAM free space, RAM speed, CPU speed, page file being used too much, even GPU as Windows uses that to function unless you disable it), and possibly more will all play a part in how well it goes for you.

Also, if any cleaning tool wipes out the cache file then thumbnails will have to be recreated. If any storage issue causes loss of caching then thumbnails will have to be recreated.

There's a lot more here that it may not be File Explorer at fault. Not saying it can't be as they have fixed in the past other issues triggered by doing certain events or things in a certain order or way.

Should also note that if you happen to use OneDrive than that there will certainty slow things down. Its the catch 22 on that.

However, I'm a programmer and File Explorer's infinite scrolling file list and its caching is working correct. Its quickly pulling in the thumbnails from the drive cache as the view is being scrolled and is caching them all into memory to keep it fluid and smooth as well as dynamically loading them into each file holder of the list. Then flows even faster after that as scrolling is done because its all in RAM. It then unloads as the folder is left and upon going back it repeats to the top of this paragraph. That is how this stuff works and its indeed doing it as it should.

Hope the best :)

I wish I knew. The problem is not getting better, it's getting worse, and I am seriously considering abandoning Windows 11 because of it.

For me I slowly accumulate video and photo files as I enjoy photography and videography. Once my SSD gets full I have to sort through all of the video and photos and decide which ones are worth keeping long term, edit the video down to what I really want/need, and then offload everything to a storage drive, of which I now have several, for long term storage.

The photos and videos are all stored in separate folders to keep things from blending together. Every single time I go into a folder, or back out of a folder, windows acts like it has to completely rediscover every file on the entire PC and build thumbnails of them, etc. I need the thumbnails as quick references, so turning off the convenience features etc. isn't really an option for me.

At this point, the only real way to navigate through the file structure is to constantly restart file explorer. That buys you about 30 seconds of normalish performance before it craps out again. I keep task manager up literally all of the time for this specific reason.

Microsoft, you need to fix this ****! It's been ages and you have done nothing. You broke windows explorer, it used to work just fine, just revert to the old code if you need to, or at least offer that as an option.

I have exactly the same issue and it is having a massive impact on my productivity because I perform a lot of file/folder operations.

It is making me regret my recent upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10.

How do we get this issue affecting so many of us addressed?

Same here, similiar issues. I have tried everything to no avail. Typically, I can/have resolved most of my issues without ever even logging into MS, I just google the problem and I end up at these or similar forums, since MS has no desire to speak with the commoners (customers) they look down upon from the terrace of their castle... "Let them figure it out George, we can sit here and laugh and drink wine while they do it, and we will give badges to guys who dont even work for us, call them advisors, yes, thats what we will do.." I digress... So today, I log in, and I comment on my issue, because I can no longer try to fix.... More than anything, I want to express my frustration... No offense to the advisors for the record, I do hope you have a way to share this feedback with MS, at least for this issue, or this will all be for nothing...

You can start reading here...

I am not a complicated user, the issue is as simple as this... I offload my iphone pics manually about every 500 or so. I use the good ole fashioned fire wire, plug it into my iPhone, and then direct to my PC. I then use the MS software to copy the photos from the phone to a "To be Sorted" folder initially, that is stored in an External Hard Drive. After the photos have loaded, I let the PC index/compress and laugh at all my terrible photos. This process doesn't take too long, but I hate to wait, so I will then usually go and watch an episode of some Amazon flix as Netflix is also losing their luster, a bit like Microsoft I suppose... Once I return, all is good, the thumbnails tiny image of my photo within the temp folder will display their shiny new blue arrows, at which point I then begin sorting... NOW... At this moment, this is when it begins to happen... This is where MS11 begins to lose its breath, gasping for air, time outs, etc. I am not nearly as fast of a navigator as my kids, but even I move at light speed for this slomo version of windows. The moment I begin to delete a bad pic, move a set of 5, 10, 50 photos from the holding folder, the "I dont want to get up and go to work" issue begins. SUPER, SUPER, SUUUUPER Slow... So slow in fact, I could cook a steak while I wait for the folder to catch its breath again after any sort of change, again even those that have been previously loaded and indexed. And that green line, that "sands of time" line that moves slower than a tortoise with no legs, drives me nuts (sorry, not important here)... It takes me at least 20 times longer than it did with MSW10 to complete this process. If I then go into the drive post sorting the photos out, and try to do anything in my external folders, I get the exact same issue. Before you say it, for the record, I even tried to do this on the PC, without using the external drive, and the same slow disease shows up there too...

Just to confirm, I did not change a thing when I switched from W10 for the record, didn't unplug something, didn't download some mystery software.. I maaaay have ate too much cake that night, so we could start there if necessary.... But, frankly, I am tired of trying this and trying that, I didn't change anything, the only change was the Windows software. Now, here I am, I have tried countless recommended fixes, and who knows what possible issue that may cause down the road.. ALL OF THIS, on something that wasn't broken prior to moving to 11... Of the (estimating) 50 different things I have done to isolate or fix this dark speed issue, nothing has worked, nothing... I have spent way, wayyyy too many hours following the advice of MS Advisors, Certified MS professionals, etc, but the needle remains lost somewhere in the haystack. Disappointed in MS, multiple changes to this new platform meant to "upgrade" this or that", but I cannot remember a time in my life when I finished upgrading, and with time, patience and practice, thought to myself, "this is worse than what I had before..." Windows 11 was the first time I felt like I went backwards with this software.

I largely suspect this issue is much more common than a total of 6 people with logged in to click "I have the same question." To get to 6, you likely have 60,000 issues, maybe 600,000, possibly 6,000,000... At what point will MS actually come out from behind the curtain? We may never know.. AND, don't need to know, just slip it into an update like you do and make it go away... The Microsoft silence, is deafening... But, that has always been the case...

Finally, I do not disagree it is "something else" impacting the speed, so if MS is only looking at File Explorer, it is possible everything looks great. Unfortunately it is likely something elsewhere, outside of the app, but on the W11 platform, that is causing this issue. It is the only variable in the equation that changed... MS did a terrible job of quality assurance before they rolled this product out, again possibly the worst experience I ever had with MS... No more attempt to fix here, will likely just go back to 10 if nothing new comes up in the next few months, and now more reluctant than ever to upgrade.....

Ehhhhhhhh,

Matt

It's even worse when trying to list a directory on Onedrive - it can take several minutes just to show a list of file names. I reported this months ago but there is still no fix, and I tried all the suggestions here. There seems to be a major bug in File Explorer. It tries to reindex every file EVERY time you open it and/or return to the parent folder after viewing a sub-folder.