Search bar finds files but will not open file

ekraus50 · Aug 7, 2025

Search bar finds the files and folders.
Folders will open when clicked.
Files will not open PDF, xls, etc. when clicked

glasskuter · Aug 7, 2025

Welcome to the forum. You are not giving nearly enough info for us to help you.
What message do you get when you try to open these files? We do not know where the files are located but if I was guessing I would say you are syncing your folders to Onedrive. (Right click on one of the files, select properties. Look under "location")
If so, have you attempted to delete Onedrive or done anything else that could affect onedrive?

ekraus50 · Aug 7, 2025

I figure I wasn't giving enough info.
On the taskbar I click on "Search"
A window opens up that says on the top "Recent" "Today" "August 7"

I type in the search term in the taskbar.
Across the tob I get "← All Apps Documents, etc"
I locate the PDF or xls doc I want to open and click on it and nothing happens.
I can open a folder that comes up in the search.
Attached is a screenshot of what I see and as an example one of the PDF's is shown "Sonoff Basic R2 RF Manual"
It was working a couple of days ago and then stoped. This is a new desktop replacing a dinasour What I have added in the past several days is Office2019, and drivers for my printer and scanner.

glasskuter · Aug 7, 2025

Check if the file associations are set up using one of these methods. Change File Associations in Windows 11 : 5 Best Ways

ekraus50 · Aug 7, 2025

All the file associations are correct. Although all file type associations are correct clicking an that particular found file
will not open them.

glasskuter · Aug 7, 2025

Can you open the file from within the app by using file>open or open file then browsing to the file?
Also can you open the file by opening the containing folder then open the file directly from list of files?

ekraus50 · Aug 7, 2025

glasskuter said:
Can you open the file from within the app by using file>open or open file then browsing to the file?

Yes

glasskuter said:
Also can you open the file by opening the containing folder then open the file directly from list of files?

Yes

ekraus50 · Aug 7, 2025

Problem some searches dont result with the folder the file is in

glasskuter · Aug 7, 2025

Other things to try, checking after each one. I'm listing them in accordance to the time it will take to do that step. It may be a simple fix or more complex:

Try to repair Windows search.

Repair Windows Search and Index in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to repair the Search Engine feature for Windows Search and search indexing in Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can use Windows Search to find your apps, files, settings, help, and more on Windows—plus unlock the power of the web with quick access to online...

www.elevenforum.com

Rebuild search index.

Reset and Rebuild Search Index in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to manually reset and rebuild the search index for accurate search results in Windows 11. Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content. The search index only includes your selected...

www.elevenforum.com

Check for corrupt system files.
Open a command prompt as administrator and type dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
When complete restart. Then open command prompt as admin again and run sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair.

If you've gotten this far and had no luck, it's wise to make sure an issue is limited to only the user account you are using or all accounts.
First copy a few of these un-openable files to a flash drive.
Create a new local account to test with. Make sure its user type is administrator. Restart and login to new account. Copy the files from the flash drive into this new account. Then test from search. It it works good in the new account, it indicates there is some kind of corruption in YOUR user account. You would need to COPY ALL your personal folders onto external media, restart again and copy all the files within the folders on the external media into the new user account folders. Then delete the old account

If the issue exists in all accounts do a Repair install Windows 11 with an inplace upgrade Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade
Note: if the issue in limited to only your user account, a repair install WILL NOT HELP.

Spunk · Aug 7, 2025

After Search shows the location of the file, browse to that location (ie) C:\users\ekau\DocumentDOCS2\SmartHome
is the Sonoff DIY file there?
If not repair search

ekraus50 · Aug 7, 2025

I have completed "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" and "sfc /scannow with no errors"
and have not gone to the next step.
With no luck.
What I did do is copy one of the pdf's I could not open from the search and from its folder to a new folder then deleted it from its original floder, restarted and preformend the search it found the pdf in its new folder and clicked on the pdf and it opened.
I have a complete back up of my Documents folder.
If I delete all the files in Documents then restore them will that clear up the proble.
Or will I have to create a new user restore and delete the original user?
There is only one user at present.

antspants · Aug 7, 2025

Create a new user and check if your main profile might be corrupt (I suspect it is)
You can remove the account when you’re done checking.

Add Local User Account in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to create and add a local account as a user on the PC in Windows 11. Having different accounts on a shared PC lets multiple people use the same device, all while giving everyone their own sign-in info, plus access to their own files, browser favorites, and...

www.elevenforum.com

Change it to an Administrator if you need to

Change Account Type in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change the account type of users to be either a standard user or administrator in Windows 11. Having different accounts on a shared PC lets multiple people use the same device, all while giving everyone their own sign-in info, plus access to their own files...

www.elevenforum.com

Delete the account when done testing. Or, keep it if the same issue isn’t present and ask here how to migrate your old user profile to the new one just created.

Delete User Account in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to delete a user account to remove it from your Windows 11 PC. Having different accounts on a shared PC lets multiple people use the same device, all while giving everyone their own sign-in info, plus access to their own files, browser favorites, and desktop...

www.elevenforum.com

ekraus50 · Aug 7, 2025

Thanks.
I am going to go with your advise and create the new user just to make sure the profile is clean.

antspants · Aug 7, 2025

We had a recent thread (last week?) with a similar issue. I asked them to do the same as above and it turned out the user profile was corrupt. Maybe something in a recent update is causing issues for some.

Can't Open .txt Files Using Windows Search win 11

I tried, Resetting, repair, reinstall notepad still doesnt work - Every other file type still opens even NOTEPAD itself when I hit enter using the search bar - I can't click, hit enter, or right click the file in "search", nothing happens - I am on Windows 11 latest non preview - I am...

www.elevenforum.com

antspants · Aug 7, 2025

ekraus50 said:
If I delete all the files in Documents then restore them will that clear up the problem

That could very well could be a fix?

Another alternative could be to move the entire Documents folder so Windows identifies it in a new location. Then once done, repeat the process and move the Documents folder back to where it was — this may be the kick that Windows needs?
This could be on the C drive, for example of C:\Users\<username>\new folder name of your choice\Documents\ or D:\Documents\

Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to move or restore the default location of the Documents folder for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The Documents folder (shell:personal) is a component of the user profile that is used as a unified location for storing personal data. By default, the...

www.elevenforum.com

ilikewindows · Aug 12, 2025

ekraus50 said:
Search bar finds the files and folders.
Folders will open when clicked.
Files will not open PDF, xls, etc. when clicked

I have exactly the same problem with the OP.

After a windows update, the search can open folders but does not open files, although it can locate them correctly.

Edit: I realized that some files can open through the search bar: zip, log,...
However, the following file types, which are most important for my work, do not open: pdf, xlsx, docx, txt,...

I also noted that this behavior does not occur always. Sometimes search works as expected and opens everything!

Lautaro · Aug 12, 2025

Hey everyone, I registed here because we were looking at the same problem (or at least very similar) in a Microsoft website and we seem to have found a solution. This was for Windows 10, but it might be the same for 11, as it started happening after the last July update:

Can’t open certain files - Microsoft Q&A

This is a follow-up to my last question. I thought it had been fixed, but certain files still won’t open. These are the types of files that, when I search for them on the taskbar search bar, don't show up on the right hand side and when I try to open…

learn.microsoft.com

In our case, the same happened plus the explorer would freeze when clicking on the files, it only happened for .txt, .pdf, and image files. Sound files and videos worked properly.

After noticing the problem would solve if we ended some "dllhost.exe" processes, a user found out it apparently was Microsoft Copilot. If you shut Copilot, and also shut Microsoft 365 Copilot the problem would fix.

I uninstalled both apps and now the problem has disappeared completely. Might be that the last Windows update brought this error?

Anyway, let me know if it works, or if maybe it's something else, the problem seems too similar to what we had.

Search bar finds files but will not open file

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