{"id":80477,"date":"2026-03-14T11:37:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/?p=80477"},"modified":"2026-03-14T11:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:08:14","slug":"file-explorer-freezes-select-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/file-explorer-freezes-select-library\/","title":{"rendered":"File Explorer Freezes When Selecting a Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you select a library<\/a> in the left pane of File Explorer in Windows 10 or 11, the cursor turns into a blue circle, and File Explorer freezes. Deleting the libraries and restoring the default libraries does not resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

\"Clicking<\/p>\n

Cause<\/h2>\n

The above issue happens if the Windows Search index is oversized. Resetting the index should fix the problem in most cases.<\/p>\n

Resolution<\/h2>\n

To resolve the issue, reset and rebuild the Windows Search index.<\/p>\n

For more information, please read the article How to Reset & Rebuild Windows Search Index Completely<\/a>. In that article, see the section “Manually Reset Windows Search and Rebuild the Index<\/em><\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

Once done, restart Windows and see if the libraries open correctly.<\/p>\n

Additional note<\/h3>\n

The above steps reset the indexed locations to default settings and rebuild the search index from scratch. You can check the status of the indexing operation by opening Indexing Options. To open Indexing Options, run the command:<\/p>\n

control srchadmin.dll<\/pre>\n
Rebuilding the index from scratch consumes a significant amount of CPU resources. Indexing will be faster when the system is left idle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you select a library in the left pane of File Explorer in Windows 10 or 11, the cursor turns into a blue circle, and File Explorer freezes. Deleting the libraries and restoring the default libraries does not resolve the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,869],"tags":[683],"class_list":["post-80477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","category-windows-11","tag-windows-search"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5492,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-search-index-google-drive-folder-permission-inheritance\/","url_meta":{"origin":80477,"position":0},"title":"Windows Search Not Finding Google Drive Files and Folders","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Google Drive client software allows you to automatically back up files from your computer, camera, or SD cards to the cloud. Google Drive sync client, as useful as it may be, there is a small glitch in the setup process. After installing and using Google Drive sync, you may have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"google drive mirror option vs streaming option","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/google-drive-sync-options.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5850,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/reset-rebuild-windows-search-index-fix-problems\/","url_meta":{"origin":80477,"position":1},"title":"How to Reset & Rebuild Windows Search Index Completely","author":"Ramesh","date":"November 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When you search for files on your computer using Windows Search via File Explorer or Cortana, the files you expect to find may not appear in the search results. This happens even though the files exist on the computer. Another situation is that some phantom files appear in search results,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"reset rebuild search using batch file","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/reset-rebuild-search-batch.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/reset-rebuild-search-batch.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/reset-rebuild-search-batch.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/reset-rebuild-search-batch.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9397,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-or-folders-not-refreshing-automatically-in-windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":80477,"position":2},"title":"Folders not refreshing automatically in Windows 10","author":"Ramesh","date":"May 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In File Explorer or on the desktop, when you create, delete, rename, or move a file or folder, the folder view does not refresh automatically to reflect the action. To see the changes, the user must press the F5 button on the keyboard, or right-click on the desktop or folder\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"cleanly restart explorer via task manager","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/exit-restart-explorer-task-manager.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/exit-restart-explorer-task-manager.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/exit-restart-explorer-task-manager.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5894,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/search-contents-of-any-file-windows-search-indexing\/","url_meta":{"origin":80477,"position":3},"title":"How to Search the Contents of Any File Type Using Windows Search","author":"Ramesh","date":"November 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows Search and its Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) is a freaking awesome feature in Windows. 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