Folders not visible in file explorer

I'm using Windows 11 22H2 Build 22621.15555. Some folders don't show when I open file explorer. When I use third party software like Everything (a filesystem searchtool I absolutely recommend) to open a file or folder in file explorer, the folder does show in that window. The folders are also visible in PowerShell. The folders are not hidden or system and I have full access rights. Can anyone tell me how to solve this? Much appreciated.

Are you sure you have your Folder View options set this way?

Yes. I have the same setting for show hidden files, folders and drives.

KDAM71 said:

Yes. I have the same setting for show hidden files, folders and drives.

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and you have un-ticked 'hide protected operating system files...' ?

What the full path for one of your 'invisible' folders?

Yes I've unticked that box and as I said before the folders don't have the hidden or system attribute. When I open them in file explorer from a third party program like Everything, the folders are visible in that file explorer window. The folders are some of the folders located under C:\p\, a folder I made myself.

KDAM71 said:

The folders are some of the folders located under C:\p\, a folder I made myself.

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It would still help to know the full path and name of one of these folders. It may be down to a non-standard character in the name.

I'm sorry, the folder names are a bit personal. I checked for special characters. The name consist of normal alphabet characters, spaces and ().

KDAM71 said:

I'm sorry, the folder names are a bit personal. I checked for special characters. The name consist of normal alphabet characters, spaces and ().

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OK, understood.

How did you create these folders? Did you use File Explorer? Or did you create them some other way, from powershell perhaps?

I used file explorer. Rightclick > new > folder.

KDAM71 said:

I used file explorer. Rightclick > new > folder.

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That is weird, File Explorer should not let you create a a folder that's 'non-standard' in any way.

As you can see these folders in Everything, have you tried right-clicking on one in Everything, copying it, then pasting it somewhere else? Will the copy also be invisible in File Explorer? If so, does renaming it using Everything help?

I'm sorry, I misunderstood. The folder containing the invisible folders was created by me. The invisible folders themselves are created by utorrent. Not all the folders created by utorrent in that same folder (p) are invisible though.

KDAM71 said:

The invisible folders themselves are created by utorrent.

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Ah, so they could easily have unsupported characters in their names. Try renaming one using Everything, that should make it become visible.

I did and it did. Then I renamed it back to the original name and it stayed visible. I'm not sure which of the characters would have been problematic. By renaming it it disappeared from utorrent so I'm not sharing it anymore I guess. Still, why wouldn't the folders showup when I start file explorer the normal way, but they do show when file explorer is started from Everything? It's the same file explorer.

KDAM71 said:

I did and it did. Then I renamed it back to the original name and it stayed visible. I'm not sure which of the characters would have been problematic. By renaming it it disappeared from utorrent so I'm not sharing it anymore I guess. Still, why wouldn't the folders showup when I start file explorer the normal way, but they do show when file explorer is started from Everything? It's the same file explorer.

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Well that confirms that it's something utorrent puts in the name that's non-standard and File Explorer won't show it.

I don't use utorrent, but apparently this sort of thing is not unknown. This from 10 years ago sounds like the same thing....

Yes it looks a lot alike. I still don't understand why the same file explorer started in a different way does show the folders.

Hello @Bree ,

I'm quite embarrassed about this. I appologize for wasting your time.
Today I noticed the windows 11 disk cleanup like function listed c:\p\ twice with different sizes. When I took a better look one of them was called c:\'p\. A typo of mine. Again, I'm very sorry. Thank you for your efforts.

KDAM71 said:

I'm quite embarrassed about this. I appologize for wasting your time.

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It's never a waste of time, especially as the conversation has led you to look more closely at the folder names.

I'm glad you don't feel your time has been wasted. Perhaps we'll talk some other time hopefully about a less embarrassing matter.