Quick Access not showing in navigation pane since Windows 11 update

Question

I updated to the latest version of Windows 11 yesterday. When I opened File Explorer, Quick access and recent files/folders were showing to the right of the window, but the Quick Access folder option was missing from the navigation panel on the left. So if I click away from this Window I've lost Quick Access. How do I re-enable Quick Access to the left part of the navigation pane?

Please look at the screenshot before replying. Quick Access is enabled in view mode options and can be seen, but is missing from the left side of the navigation pane.

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Thank you Neville - I tried this, and now my 'Home' area displays Quick Access. I'm so grateful, as I used Quick Access a lot.

Like other people, I despair when Microsoft fiddles with features and does not consider the consequences carefully enough.

Your helpful reply could be made a bit more complete as follows?

• select your 'Home folder' within Explorer
• under the 3 dots to the right of "Filter", select 'Options'
• under the General tab, Privacy... deselect all the items - you should see 'Quick access' appear in your 'Home' area.
• if you would still like to have 'Recent' files on 'Home', then reselect 'Show recently used files' and 'Show frequently used folders'

Microsoft: It doesn't help to introduce another concept 'Favourites' which overlaps with the existing one (Quick access). Now I have a 'Favourites' area in 'Home', but there is no 'Add to Favourites' on the context menu of files/folders in Explorer - despite lots of articles saying this is what you need to get something in Favourites. My guess is that there is another weird toggle of settings like the one that solved the Quick Access issue to solve that problem too. It all smacks of creeping functionality where no designer has overall control on what developers are doing - or the designer isn't a designer, and is just a coder.

Answer 2

The following worked for me, based on a helpful reply already made by Neville below.

• select your 'Home folder' within Explorer
• under the 3 dots to the right of "Filter", select 'Options'
• under the General tab, Privacy... deselect all the items - you may see 'Quick access' appear in your 'Home' area (I did).
• if you would still like to have 'Recent' files on 'Home', then reselect 'Show recently used files' and 'Show frequently used folders'

Answer 3

You are right Ian - that doesn't work, and it was an incomplete answer that didn't really address the original problem.

The following worked for me:

• select your 'Home folder' within Explorer
• under the 3 dots to the right of "Filter", select 'Options'
• under the General tab, Privacy... deselect all the items - you may see 'Quick access' appear in your 'Home' area (I say may appear only as it isn't logical why this should make Quick Access appear, but it has worked for at least two of us on here).
• if you would still like to have 'Recent' files on 'Home', then reselect 'Show recently used files' and 'Show frequently used folders'

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Yes!!!!!! It worked. Thank you

Answer 5

Same here. I had a tough time looking for my pinned folders in the quick access after my recent update to Windows 11. But here's what I was able to find and applied so that I can again see my quick access folders.

Pin, remove, and customize in Quick access - Microsoft Support