Forum Discussion
Explorer showing duplicate files/folders on a network drive
On my Fritzbox 7490 router, it has a feature where you can plug in a USB drive and it will be available to all users of the network in a NAS-like way.
For the last couple of months (but never before that) I'm seeing duplicate files and folders, Sometimes two instances of each folder or file, and sometimes three instances. I permanently have an explorer instance open to that drive because I use it so often. Ignore the fact that other machines have potential access to it, because my laptop is the only one that does ever use it (and is 99.9% of the time the only computer switched on).
I've made a screenshot below of what it looks like. It is of course impossible to have multiple files or folders of the same name, but Explorer is happy to present the folder hierarchy as if that is what's happening. You'd think it would catch itself and realize that can't be right, but it doesn't. If I hit F5 to refresh, they'll usually go away and I'll see single entries as normal, but quite often they don't.
One important and perhaps relevant thing to note is that I have a batch file that is constantly running/re-running and when it detects files of a certain type, it will copy them from my local drives to that network drive. So my machine will have two parallel (and different) connections to the drive. But .... and it's a big but (I cannot lie) I've been using this machine and that batch file since I bought the laptop 3 years ago without this duplicate entries ever happening. I suspect a windows update change to Explorer (or some service) that happened in the last 6 months.
Is it just me?
4 Replies
I have been having the same issue. Windows keeps doubling and tripling the files and folders in the mapped network drive. It has been after some Windows update that Windows Explorer started that thing. Now you can notice that Windows Explorer is regularly updating the view in the open window. On those view updates the content of the current folder is re-listed. Then sometimes everything is normal, sometimes the entries are doubled, sometimes even tripled. Manually refreshing the view (F5) works similarly - sometimes single entries, sometimes doubled. Interestingly: if Windows Explorer is automatically refreshing the view while you are renaming any file/folder, it throws you out of renaming and shows again the old file/folder name, so you can begin with it again.
What else could be seen is that Windows Explorer confuses paths. Let's say you have two files:
Z:\a_folder\b_folder\c_folder\d_file.abc
and
Z:\k_folder\l_folder\m_folder\n_file.abc
but for a short while (probably on those strange view updates) it mixes it up to a random thing like Z:\a_folder\b_folder\m_folder\n_file.abc
I realized this thanks to my backup program which throws out errors that those mixed up paths do not exist. That's understandable of course. However it seems that after a while (maybe a second, maybe shorter?) everything is back to normal again.It seems as if the doubling or tripling of folder content is connected with the mixing up of paths. Both happen quite randomly (but always on that refreshing of the network folder content view) and repeatedly for short moments. That's why F5 usually works (as usually being hit a moment after Windows did its thing). The issue however keeps coming back.
BTW: I am also using a FRITZ!Box. Tried it with a 6660 and a 6670. Both the same! Coincidence? 🤨
Press F5 in Windows Explorer to refresh the view. Sometimes, the duplicates are just a display issue caused by caching.
Make sure your laptop consistently connects to the network drive (mapped drive). If the connection is unstable, the issue can result in the file explorer refreshing or restarting the indexing which may cause the issue you are seeing. Check your network connection for any problems like signal dropping.
The problem is independent of the connection - no matter if I use a LAN or a WLAN connection - both the same.
