Forum Discussion
Win11 Settings app crashes when trying to open the Storage page after connecting an external drive
After connecting an external USB storage device, opening Settings → System → Storage may sometimes cause the Settings app to crash or become unresponsive. If no external storage device is connected, the page loads normally.
This issue occurs more frequently on storage devices formatted as exFAT or those containing a large number of files.
2 Replies
The permanent fix is to install the latest cumulative Windows updates. This crash was fixed in Windows 11 Insider builds 27975 and later, and the fix has rolled into the general release channel.
Disconnect the USB storage device before opening the Storage settings to prevent the system from attempting to process it and causing a crash.
