"This folder is empty" on several drives

lbeck · Jan 28, 2025

I've been getting the quoted notification when trying to access several but not all files. Being somewhat paranoid and having access to inexpensive HDDs I have several drives with DIY backups. All drives are connected to my desktop computer and the Internet.

The subject notification has been presented on several drives for months when using Windows File Explorer. I haven’t been too worried given my backups. But now I’m getting the same notification on my backups and on different folders (Music, pictures, Documents and others). Now I AM worried that my computer may be the recipient of malware. I’ve run Malwarebytes “free” and no issues were found.

How can I isolate the source of the problem? Any help is appreciated, including recommendations for inexpensive software. I’d really like to get my files back.

Ghot · Jan 28, 2025

I would guess that it's something related to OneDrive ??

As an aside, here's ten points just for filling out your computer specs.

Berton · Jan 28, 2025

Are the drives in cases that connect by USB? Have they been tried in different ports? Have different cables been tried? Have they been tried in a different computer?

I have several drives on a shelf that I've cleaned in a Drive Dock, also can run diagnostics on drives, copy one to another or do a hardware clone from one to another. The few drives I've had fail were in a USB case where the circuitry/interface was the issue, drives were okay but the failure caused loss of data.

lbeck · Jan 28, 2025

Ghot - Not familiar with OneDrive. But see the image below for only one HDD. Same for several more. I also can show full folders on the same drives. One Drive doesn't seem to be the problem. Let me know if you want to see more images or have me try something else.

Berton - Re: "few drives I've had fail" The drives haven't failed. Other files/folders on the drives are ok. It's just several (many) that present with the "Empty folder" syndrome....

Thanks to you both for your comments/suggestions

starchase · Jan 28, 2025

Windows 11 Home, ver 24H2 build 26100.2454

I've been dealing with this identical issue when I open the My Documents folder on my MYBOOK TimeMachineBackup. On my Win10 machine it displays as normal, but on my Win11 laptop I click on My Documents and get the empty folder notice. I found that if in the left pane I can get a subfolder to show I click on that and its files will appear and then I can get into the main My Documents folder! My specs for the HP laptop are in My Computers below. An ancillary issue is that even when I do this dance for a work around, not all of the files that I know are there are listed! I think this is a Win 11 problem and its dealing with the WD MYBOOK NAS drive, as until I made the update to 24N2 the machine ran normally. It has been driving me kinda crazy but I see no alternative to the extra steps with my work araound.
Another ancillary issue is that when I open an "Excel" file (I'm using Libra Office current version, and the native scalc file works the same broken way) the temp file it makes won't close and deleting it manually doesn't work until I turn the machine off. So I don't open any file on the MYBOOK, I just copy updated files to it from my Win10 and 11 computers. I should just go back to using Win10 on the laptop, but that's a drastic step for just this one issue!

lbeck · Jan 28, 2025

starchase - Thanks so much for our input. One of my HDDs has been scavenged from a WD MYBOOK which I could never get running properly. The HDD works fine but the system of “a personal Cloud” didn’t. So I trashed the system except for the HDD. I don’t have TimeMachineBackup but I am using Macrium Reflect to clone and backup my boot drive. My data repositories aren’t backed up.

I’m enclosing an image of my HDDs in case it can help solve my dilemma.

dacrone · Wednesday at 12:36 AM

lbeck said:
Ghot - Not familiar with OneDrive. But see the image below for only one HDD. Same for several more. I also can show full folders on the same drives. One Drive doesn't seem to be the problem. Let me know if you want to see more images or have me try something else.

Berton - Re: "few drives I've had fail" The drives haven't failed. Other files/folders on the drives are ok. It's just several (many) that present with the "Empty folder" syndrome....

Thanks to you both for your comments/suggestions

The first and last folders are in OneDrive. Says right there in the address bar. Launch OneDrive on the web via your browser and login and see if your files are synced there.

The middle one is your Documents. If OneDrive is syncing, I’d venture to guess if swallowed up Documents too as that’s one of the default directories it takes over. See if those are on OneDrive via web too.

Winuser · Wednesday at 8:09 AM

Are you running Windows 11 version 24H2? I'm wondering if it's a Windows problem or a File Explorer Problem. Have you tried using a third party file manager? There are a number of them to choose from. I tried a few and decided to use FreeCommander.

lbeck · Wednesday at 4:18 PM

@Winuser - I'm running 24H2 also. But I may have saved files while running a previous version.

@[B][U]dacrone[/U][/B]

First – I’m not at all familiar or proficient in OneDrive. So I was optimistic that my problems may lie there. But after accessing my OneDrive files I find that the files that are missing at File Explorer are missing also at OneDrive also.

The image shows an example. I’m certain that I had an important file in my “Family” folder. But the folder is reportedly empty.

Given my lack of proficiency with OneDrive I’ll be happy to try different routines and report back on my success or questions. I appreciate your help.

dacrone · Wednesday at 5:22 PM

definitely not a good sign if the drive is empty and onedrive's folder that matches is empty too. on the onedrive web, in the left-hand pane, check, the recycle bin for onedrive and see if they got deleted to there.

Winuser · Wednesday at 5:53 PM

To make sure I'm getting this right. The local folders and the OneDrive folders are showing as empty in Win version 24H2 and with other version of Windows the files are there. Is that correct? If it is, it's one of the strangest problems I've ever heard of. If this is the case, do you have a extra USB drive that you can copy the files too. I'm asking because I don't want to see you lose your files.

lbeck · Saturday at 12:00 AM

dacrone - I agree with "definitely not a good sign". But I'm encouraged that there hasn't been a flurry of responses informing me that I’m infected with malware. I still might have irretrievably lost files, but I’m hoping that since this appears to be a unique problem maybe it’s confined to my system and solvable.

An item that I neglected to present in my attempt to be succinct is that I do have Macrium Reflect but pretty much confined to only my “C:\” boot drive. I don’t have a restore point for Win recovery utility. I do have Duplicate Cleaner Pro software which is impressive. I may be able to figure out some routines to find and isolate some files if any previously version is somewhere. Even if only early versions.

Also – and I haven’t confirmed this – my number of “lost files” seems to be growing. When I decided to work on this again and opened my computer, Macrium was churning away producing a backup (set to beginning of month). Fearing that I might continue losing files, I shut down my computer and disconnected external drives.

I’m beginning to panic. Is there a way for me to preserve what I’ve got?? Is the favored way to simply create a restore point? I’m continuing to work on this but increasingly fearful that I may be digging my hole deeper by messing in an area of little expertise/experience.

I’m happy to answer questions.

dacrone · Saturday at 12:07 AM

lbeck said:
dacrone - I agree with "definitely not a good sign". But I'm encouraged that there hasn't been a flurry of responses informing me that I’m infected with malware. I still might have irretrievably lost files, but I’m hoping that since this appears to be a unique problem maybe it’s confined to my system and solvable.

An item that I neglected to present in my attempt to be succinct is that I do have Macrium Reflect but pretty much confined to only my “C:\” boot drive. I don’t have a restore point for Win recovery utility. I do have Duplicate Cleaner Pro software which is impressive. I may be able to figure out some routines to find and isolate some files if any previously version is somewhere. Even if only early versions.

Also – and I haven’t confirmed this – my number of “lost files” seems to be growing. When I decided to work on this again and opened my computer, Macrium was churning away producing a backup (set to beginning of month). Fearing that I might continue losing files, I shut down my computer and disconnected external drives.

I’m beginning to panic. Is there a way for me to preserve what I’ve got?? Is the favored way to simply create a restore point? I’m continuing to work on this but increasingly fearful that I may be digging my hole deeper by messing in an area of little expertise/experience.

I’m happy to answer questions.

i dont think malware is anywhere in the equation. it sounds to me like onedrive was syncing your files and once deleted from there, other drives synced to nothing, thus equating to nothing. your files were on a removable drive (or multiple removable drives) correct? if so you can run recovery software to those drives and see what is retrievable. i would disconnect from the internet while doing so to ensure onedrive has zero chance of interfering with the process though.

lbeck · Saturday at 12:08 AM

Winuser said:
with other version of Windows the files are there.

No. I wish that were so. but it aint. I haven't checked other versions. Everything that I have is Win 11.

dacrone · Saturday at 12:11 AM

How to Recover Deleted Files with WinfrGUI?

WinfrGUI is a free Windows File Recovery alternative that can recover lost/deleted files in Windows 10/11 without CMD.

www.ubackup.com

whatever you attempt to recover, save it to a DIFFERENT drive so as to not overwrite data. each time you save to the drive you attempt to recover from the odds of recovery get less and less

lbeck · Saturday at 12:12 AM

Dacrone - encouraging. What "recovery software " do you recommend? I'm at the point of purchasing anything that will work.

Thanks for your continued participation.

lbeck · Saturday at 12:17 AM

dacrone said:
i dont think malware is anywhere in the equation. it sounds to me like onedrive was syncing your files and once deleted from there, other drives synced to nothing, thus equating to nothing. your files were on a removable drive (or multiple removable drives) correct? if so you can run recovery software to those drives and see what is retrievable. i would disconnect from the internet while doing so to ensure onedrive has zero chance of interfering with the process though.

dacrone · Saturday at 12:18 AM

lbeck said:
Dacrone - encouraging. What "recovery software " do you recommend? I'm at the point of purchasing anything that will work.

Thanks for your continued participation.

winfrgui is free (see link in post above). you can purchase any you want:

i use Easeus, but there are AOMEI, Recuva, DiskDrill, Active@

lbeck · Saturday at 12:21 AM

Dacrone - your files were on a removable drive (or multiple removable drives) correct? YES.

Your advice is great! I'll post back on my results.

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@Winuser - I'm running 24H2 also. But I may have saved files while running a previous version.​

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@Winuser - I'm running 24H2 also. But I may have saved files while running a previous version.

@[B][U]dacrone[/U][/B]