File Explorer - Status column problem

Question

Hi all,

In File Explorer on my Windows 11 laptop, the Status column is often missing or empty when I'm viewing folders that are synced to OneDrive. In other words, sometimes the column (including its heading) doesn't appear at all, and sometimes the column is there but it has no icons. Sometimes it's OK.

This was just an occasional problem at first, but it's been getting worse in the last couple of days. In the past, I could always fix it by restarting the laptop. Today, I've done several restarts (and tried shutting it down and switching it on again), and the problem hasn’t gone away at all.

I've tried right-clicking on the column headings, then selecting 'More' and then ticking one or more of the 'Status' items in the list (there are three of them!). But this just adds empty columns, and it only works for that specific folder anyway - I wouldn't want to have to do this for every folder.

A few minutes ago, the Status column was empty for the top-level folders (e.g. C:\Users[…]\OneDrive […]\Documents), and completely missing for the lower-level ones. Now, it's completely missing everywhere except the main C:\Users[…]\OneDrive folder.

OneDrive itself seems to be working OK all the time. If I click on the cloud icon in the taskbar, it shows the most recent syncings and (when appropriate) says 'Your files are synced'.

Does anyone have any advice, please? (N.B. If you suggest altering registry files, I'm not sure whether I'll do this unless it's very simple and very safe.)

Thanks and regards,

Graham

Answer 1

Hi Cristiano,

Thank you very much for these suggestions, but, as I said, the problem isn't happening now. I might try these solutions if it happens again.

Regards,

Graham

Answer 2

Ok. I understand now. If you have further questions, feel free to ask for help.

Regards,

Cristiano

Answer 3

The problem occurred again today - the Status column was OK for some folders, but was empty for some others, and was completely missing for others. After a restart, it now seems OK for all folders, but I'd like to try to make a permanent fix.

I'm unsure about using LesFerch's suggestion, as I'm nervous about installing third-party software that affects the operation of Windows. I'm also uneasy about the in-place upgrade that Nada suggested, as some difficulties have been reported on that thread. Instead, I've tried Cristiano's suggestion: 'open File Explorer, go to the View tab, and click on Options. In the Folder Options window that appears, go to the View tab and click on the "Reset Folders" button. This should reset all folder view settings to their default values.' It looks OK so far, but I'll need to see what happens in the coming weeks.

Thanks again for everyone's suggestions so far.

Answer 4

I have a brand new laptop running the current version of Windows 11 Pro, and this issue has been driving me nuts. I eventually completed a full reset of the PC, but even that did not solve the issue.

I just found this June 7th Windows blog post: Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23475 | Windows Insider Blog

Under Known Issues [File Explorer]: [NEW] Sync status icons for files backing up to a storage provider are not reliably displayed.

Maybe someday we'll have a solution for this annoyance.