Hi, my file explorer lags (or freezes for few seconds) every time i rename files and happened in any folder or files in any drive. Specifically, it happens after i'm finished renaming a file or folder and pressing enter/tab/clicking anywhere, then it freezes. When i click again anywhere on the explorer it says not responding and the hourglass cursor appears for a good 5-10 seconds, then it goes back to normal. This happens from the very beginning i updated from windows 10 to windows 11 dev, now it's updated to insider preview and it still happens.Things i tried, but no effect:1. Closing onedrive2. Closing all apps Things i tried and solved the problem:reverting back to windows 10 But i like windows 11, so really appreciate if someone can solve this.Thank you in advance. My PC:AMD Ryzen 9 3900x32GB RAM DDR4Samsung SSD NVMe 512GBRadeon RX 5700

Hi, thank you all for sharing the issue. I just want to give an update on my issue. Since the last win 11 update (around last friday), it got better. Now when i press tab after rename it does not freeze. So, instead of pressing enter or clicking anywhere to finish renaming files, i press tab then esc.

My issue is a bit different. I have a new Dell XPS PC that came with Windows 11 installed. Everything works great. However, if I change the folder in Win Explorer, more specifically go up by one level (say from A/B/C to A/B) by pressing the up-arrow, WE hangs for a couple of seconds showing a spinning blue wheel. And then everything is working. This is a little nuance, but it is very annoying since I am used to a lot of folders switching and very fast. I do not have a problem with renaming files.

Jessicajil Unfortunately I need OneDrive as it's my primary method to keep/backup my business documents. With that said I found that I had a bunch of files in my recycle bin in OneDrive and my documents folder set to always be local, so it had all those recycle contents locally. My procmon analysis showed for some reason OneDrive constantly referencing those files in recycle bin (not during active sync or anything, just doing normal activities in Explorer). Anyway I purged all my recycler contents both online and offline and now it seems my Explorer issue has gone away <shrug>.

I think I found the answer to Windows 11 files freezing when renaming files.In my case, files were freezing so often, I resorted to constant use of LockHunter and/or IObit Unlocker to unlock my files on daily if not hourly basis! What an annoying problem!In any event, both programs showed me that the “searchprotocolhost.exe” process was the constant culprit behind my locked files. The solution that worked for me is to stop indexing files on my desktop which is where I normally drag and drop files to re-name.To fix this the way I did, do the following:1) Go to the taskbar and click on the search bar. Enter: “indexing options”. The indexing options dialogue box will appear.2) Click “modify” and then drill down and add folders like the desktop to EXCLUDE from indexing and then save.That’s it.I’m not sure if this is a fix for all, but it definitely worked for me. I was so annoyed by this problem, I made a vow to alert the public when I found a solution so here it is!Hope this helps others like it helped me!

Windows 11 File Explorer freezes when renaming files

40 Replies

SouthPoleCat
Copper Contributor
Nov 18, 2021
It seems that I found a simple solution, at least to my problem when WE would pause for a few seconds when changing folders. Go to folders/options/view and UNCHECK "Launch folder in a separate process". Restart. That's it!
- MNJONES1907
  Copper Contributor
  Nov 20, 2021
  SouthPoleCat Yes, Explorer is broken. Totally. I re-installed Windows 11 to try it again, after my VM version started to become more stable after the last update and I found an optical drive work around in File Explorer. So, I thought it'd work better than earlier iterations. Nope. It's worse.
  I updated to the latest update of 11 today, and now File Explorer is the most unstable it has ever been. I have rebooted 4x and I still get (Not Responding) and a white box where File Explorer should be. Each time, I'd try to start Task Manager and get the Task Manger is (Not Responding) and then the popup for Task Manager says, "The application is not responding. The Program may respond again if you wait. Do you want to end this process?" That's it. I'm done. I'm out.
SouthPoleCat
Copper Contributor
Nov 16, 2021
I am having similar issues on the pre-installed release of W11. This is definitely Windows Explorer issue. In addition to WE, I also use "free commander" and "multi commander" (just Google 'em) which remind me of "Norton Commander" from many many years ago. So, these two do NOT have any problem browsing and renaming files and directories. Give it a try.
motosgamer
Copper Contributor
Oct 13, 2021
balbul I think I might have dug a bit more in the problem, I explain:
I have both, Intel and AMD pcs with win11 but the freezing issue just happens with AMD and it only occurs when I rename directories. The important thing here is that it is not a visual problem because I tried to rename the folders via cmd and the interface also freezes out.
As it seems the AMD processors are having issues with the memory in win11. Let's hope it gets fixed in the next update.
- MNJONES1907
  Copper Contributor
  Oct 16, 2021
  Ah! I have an AMD rig and yep, this is happening to me, as well. I am trying to rename a bunch of media files for Plex Media Server and, well, I guess I'll have to spin up a Windows 10 Virtual Machine. I really do not like the way File Explorer has been stripped down in Windows 11. Hell, File Manager in Win 3.11 was better than this mess. The whole ribbon is naked, it seems, and I had to download a patch just to regain the "move to folder" and "copy to folder" function. Then they took away having a clock on the lower right corner of each monitor, and I happen to play my full windows game on the far right window, so my clock is gone. (Yeah, first-world problem, I know). However, today, I discovered the bug with renaming these incorrectly named files, so I am very tempted to roll back to Windows 10 and be done with it. I tried an automated mass re-namer, but each file needs a human eye on it for certain decisions that I cannot automate. Other than the prestige of having the latest OS, I don't see a big enough benefit of having Windows 11, at this time. I'll go back to my original set-up of Win 10 with a Win 11 VM.
  - motosgamer
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 26, 2021
    MNJONES1907 I now have the latest developer build and it seems like the problem has been solved. I also think that we should have the time in the second screen. Have you rolled back to w10? I think I will because some games running under dx12 just crush after a while.
earruda
Copper Contributor
Sep 29, 2021
Same here!!!
- SteinarBr
  Copper Contributor
  Oct 07, 2021
  Same here, file explorer is extremely sluggish/slow on my Surface Pro 7 7i with 16GB RAM & 1TB, which should be powerful hardware & almost brand new. Was excellent i W10, also on my old Surface Pro i5.

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Windows 11 File Explorer freezes when renaming files

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