Can't pin anything to Quick Access (Windows 11)

Question

The Quick Access menu was working perfectly since I bought the computer 18 months ago, but after the last Windows 11 update (November 2023) it disappeared, and I can't pin anything to it. The option is there in the context menu, but when I click on it, nothing happens. The 'Home' in Explorer remains empty.

I have tried everything I can find searching the internet, including this one (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cant-pin-images-and-documents-folder-to-quick/7c0380af-8d9b-4b85-ae0d-d7481dc67efe) but nothing works.

Answer 1

Hi, I am Dave, I will help you with this.

1

Open File Explorer, then click the 3 dots at the top and select Options

On the resulting dialog, are the 3 options in the Privacy section enabled?

2

Is it just folders that are not appearing in the Home section, or is it files and folders not appearing there?

If it is just folders, there is a problem many people have reported that only folders do not appear in the Home section, and until that bug is resolved, in the left navigation pane, right click an empty spot, disable 'Show All Folders' and the pinned folders should appear in the left navigation pane.

Answer 2

Still does not work for me. Used to work, but no more. Microsoft is really the worst.

Answer 3

None of the above worked for me. Can't pin folders to Quick Access. Very frustrating.

The old way of doing it was by right-clicking on a folder and selecting "Pin to Quick access".

When I do this, I get the error message, "A disk error occurred during a read operation".

What does this error message even mean? I can open the folder normally and read its contents just fine. It's only the Quick access that no longer works.

Answer 4

I tried that but it did not work.

A red circle with a bar across it pops up as I am dragging the folder to Quick Access - which I take to mean that the move is forbidden by Windows. Anyway, the folder does not show up in Quick Access after that drag/drop.

Answer 5

You can try this below

Try this:

1. open files explorer
2. look at the left side where the quick access is
3. then scroll down and right click.
4. there should be a pop-up saying:

-show this computer

-show network

(something simillar)

5. unclick "show all folders"
6. after clicking this you can pin folders to quick access

It worked for me