{"id":1825,"date":"2016-03-04T20:05:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T14:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:57:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T06:27:37","slug":"error-rename-move-folder-not-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/error-rename-move-folder-not-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Fix: Cannot Rename or Move Folders &#8211; The File or folder does not exist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you try to move or rename a folder in Windows 10 or 11, the errors <strong>Can&#8217;t find the specified file, <\/strong>and <strong>The file or folder does not exist<\/strong> occur. Also, duplicate icons with no text appear for special folders, namely Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos, under This PC section in File Explorer.<!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75781\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75781\" style=\"width: 742px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75781 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/cant-rename-folder-windows-11.png\" alt=\"cannot rename folders - windows 11 - folderdescriptions\" width=\"752\" height=\"350\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75781\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from a Windows 11 system<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 424px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/w10\/fdesc1.png\" alt=\"Cannot Rename or Move Folders in Windows 10\" width=\"434\" height=\"272\" border=\"0\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Can&#8217;t find the specified file. Make sure you specify the correct path and file name.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 342px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/w10\/fdesc2.png\" alt=\"Cannot Rename or Move Folders in Windows 10\" width=\"352\" height=\"125\" border=\"0\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The file or folder does not exist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><i>(Fig 1, 2, &amp; 3) Errors when renaming a folder.<\/i><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 439px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/w10\/fdesc4.png\" alt=\"Cannot Rename or Move Folders in Windows 10\" width=\"449\" height=\"253\" border=\"0\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Can&#8217;t find the specified file. Make sure you specify the correct path and file name.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>(Fig 4) Error &#8220;Interrupted Action&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;Can&#8217;t find the specified file&#8221; when moving a folder.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/w10\/fdesc3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"135\" height=\"288\" \/><br \/>\n<i>(Fig 5) Duplicate icons appear for special folders, containing no text.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/w10\/fdesc5.png\" alt=\"Cannot Rename or Move Folders in Windows 10\" width=\"462\" height=\"360\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\n<i>(Fig 6) Clicking a nameless item shows the special folder GUID in the address bar.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>In addition, the following symptoms may be observed:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Unable to move folders to a different location, nor be able to restore deleted items from the Recycle Bin.<\/li>\n<li>Unable to launch special folders using the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/shell-commands-to-access-the-special-folders\/\">Shell: command<\/a>. For example, when you run the command <code>shell:My Music<\/code>, you may receive the following error:\n<pre class=\"err\">Windows cannot find 'shell:My Music'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Resolution<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re unable to rename or move folders, it&#8217;s caused by missing registry entries under the FolderDescriptions registry key. Follow these steps to fix the problem:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Please create a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/create-restore-protection-point-rollback-windows\/\">System Restore Point<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/automatically-backup-registry-hives-windows-10\/#regbak_utility\">backup the registry hives<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Download the following file:\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/W10_folder_descriptions.zip\">w10_folder_descriptions.zip<\/a> (for Windows 10 22H2.)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/W11_folder_descriptions.zip\">w11_folder_descriptions.zip<\/a> (for Windows 11 24H2.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Open the zip file and extract &#8220;folderdescriptions.reg&#8221; to your desktop.<\/li>\n<li>Move &#8220;folderdescriptions.reg&#8221; to the C:\\ drive&#8217;s root.<\/li>\n<li>Download <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nirsoft.net\/utils\/advanced_run.html\" target=\"_blank\">AdvancedRun from Nirsoft<\/a> and run it.<\/li>\n<li>Using AdvancedRun, launch <strong>c:\\windows\\regedit.exe<\/strong> as TrustedInstaller.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/advancedrun-start-regedit.png\" alt=\"advancedrun start regedit.exe\" width=\"541\" height=\"285\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-46172\" \/><\/li>\n<li>In the Registry Editor window, click File, and click Import&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Dismiss the &#8220;Location is not available&#8221; message box by clicking OK.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/regedit-location-not-available-trustedinstaller.png\" alt=\"regedit import location not available - trustedinstaller\" width=\"558\" height=\"163\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-78461\" \/><\/li>\n<li>In the &#8220;Import Registry File&#8221; window, type <strong>C:\\folderdescriptions.reg<\/strong> in the &#8220;File name&#8221; text box, and press Enter.<\/li>\n<li>Click <strong>Yes<\/strong> to confirm. If you see the following error, please ignore it:\n<pre class=\"err\">Not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes, or you have insufficient privileges to perform this operation.<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>After the import is successful, exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n<li>Restart Windows and see if the issue is resolved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>More Information<\/h3>\n<p>The above steps restore the default keys and values under the <code><strong>FolderDescriptions<\/strong><\/code> registry branch:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"registry\">HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions<\/pre>\n<p>The above registry branch is like a template that stores various settings and GUIDs for shell folders in Windows. It tells the shell how to parse special folders when you use Explorer. The shortcut <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/shell-commands-to-access-the-special-folders\/\">shell: commands<\/a> (aliases) we use to open special folders directly, come from the <code>FolderDescriptions<\/code> key.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Important<\/strong>: Please do not run the registry file in other versions of Windows. For Windows 8.1, download <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/w10\/w8_folder_descriptions.zip\"><strong>w8_folder_descriptions.zip<\/strong><\/a>, unzip and run the enclosed <strong>.reg<\/strong> file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you try to move or rename a folder in Windows 10 or 11, the errors Can&#8217;t find the specified file, and The file or folder does not exist occur. Also, duplicate icons with no text appear for special folders, namely Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos, under This PC section in File Explorer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,869],"tags":[191,441],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","category-windows-11","tag-error-messages","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4913,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/rename-quick-access-shellfolder-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":1825,"position":0},"title":"How to Rename Quick Access Shortcuts in Windows 10 File Explorer","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Quick access is a handy feature in Windows 10 that lets you pin your frequently used folders. 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For example, the \"Documents\" folder may show up as \"Downloads\", or \"Desktop\" may appear as \"Downloads\". However, the folder name may show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"desktop shell folder renamed - localizedresourcename","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/desktop-name-changed-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/desktop-name-changed-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/desktop-name-changed-4.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/desktop-name-changed-4.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1543,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-ini-automatically-opens-at-startup\/","url_meta":{"origin":1825,"position":3},"title":"Desktop.ini file automatically opens when you start Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When you start your computer, the desktop.ini file may automatically open in Notepad. 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