Documents folder

Question

Documents folder

Marcia Obillo 0

I am confused. I have a Document folders in multiple places with different totals.

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2 answers

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Answer 1

EmilyS726 269.8K Independent Advisor

Hello

Can you do this for each documents folder, and share the findings please:

Right click on the folder, then choose "copy as path", if you don't see this option right away, then click on "show more" first, then use "ctrl+v" to paste it here in a comment. Do it for all the folders you saw, so that I can compare them and see what might be causing this.

Marcia Obillo 0 Reputation points

2026-09-21T01:49:02.7333333+00:00

"C:\Users\mobil\Documents"

"C:\Users\mobil\Documents" [under my name]

"C:\Users\mobil\iCloudDrive\Documents"

"C:\Users\mobil\iCloud Drive Archive\Documents"
EmilyS726 269.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-21T02:06:07.0066667+00:00

The first two appear to be the same folder. I am not sure what you meant by "under your name", in what way is it presented? Do these two folders have the same number of files?

These are separate folders, and not the same as #1 and #2.

C:\Users\mobil\iCloudDrive\Documents - the Documents folder stored/synced through iCloud Drive.

C:\Users\mobil\iCloud Drive Archive\Documents - a separate archived copy, typically created when iCloud Drive was disabled, reset, or reconfigured.

So you could have different versions of the same files in all three physical locations.

Do you still have the iCloud app running on your computer?

Answer 2

Windows can show Documents in more than one place because some entries are shortcuts or virtual views, not separate physical folders.

Supported explanations from the context:

Documents/My Documents can be a virtual folder in File Explorer or on the desktop. That means it can point to the user’s document location rather than being the actual storage folder itself.
The default physical user profile location for documents is typically the user profile’s Documents folder.
In Windows 11, File Explorer can also show what looks like duplicate Documents entries in different navigation areas, while both point to the same location.
If OneDrive folder backup is involved, the active Documents location may have been redirected into OneDrive\Documents instead of the local profile Documents folder.

Practical ways to check:

In File Explorer, compare the folder paths shown in Properties for each Documents entry.
If both entries show the same path, they are just two views of the same folder.
If one path is under the user profile and another is under OneDrive, OneDrive backup or redirection is likely involved.
In File Explorer, type shell:Personal in the address bar. That opens the current Documents folder Windows is using.
If duplicate icons are the issue, File Explorer navigation settings such as Show Libraries or Show all folders can make duplicate-looking entries appear.

If the totals differ, the most likely reasons supported here are:

one entry is a virtual folder view,
one entry is the local profile folder,
or Documents has been redirected to OneDrive.