Lost Windows 10 Favorites: IE can't find it

KiwiTim · 25 Feb 2018

Hi, I hope someone can help. I'm running Windows 10 32bit V. 1709. I have two partitions, one with the OS and one with DATA. As I occasionally restore my OS with a system image, I moved all my Personal folders over to the DATA partition, including Desktop, Documents .... and Favorites. This normally works fine I just use the Location tab on the folder properties dialog. I was having some trouble with a Loyus Approach database giving me read/write access so I thought I'd tried renaming the DATA partition with a different drive letter. Of course I lost access to my personal folders as the path to them had now changed. I rectified this using each personal folder's propertes and location tab. The renamed DATA partition letter caused some other issues with programs, so I converted it back to its original letter and adjusted the paths for my personal folders. I could not find a 'Location' tab for favorites.When I open IE no favorites are listed. I tried editing the registry to direct the Favorites to the correct folder: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Favorites and put %USERPROFILE%\Favorites, rebooted, but still IE did not list Favorites. I also tried user the direct path to the Favorites Folder "E:\MyPC\Favorites", but this did not work either. Tried resetting IE, but still did not work. There are complete favorites folders in both the default location and on the DATA partition, but W10 doesn't seem to be able to see them.

dalchina · 26 Feb 2018

This is the recommended way to relocate favourites:
Move Location of Favorites Folder in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

Maybe something there will help.

Mine are on E: - the path occurs in
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2598030854-xxxxxxxxxxxx-1001\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2598030854-xxxxxxxxxxxx-1001\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

(or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\
)

Following the tutorial - shell:favorites opens explorer, then you can see the Location tab and path.

Lost Windows 10 Favorites: IE can't find it-1.jpg

Try3 · 26 Feb 2018

Tim,

1 There are two similarly-named Registry keys and you only refer to having corrected one of them [Shell folders]. Look 10 keys down and you will see User shell folders. Make sure that the Favorites entry here is also what it ought to be. [Personally, I always alter the User shell folders entries and I find that the Shell folders entries then change to match them automatically.] Always enter the address in full - E:\MyPC\Favorites rather than %UserProfile%\Favorites

2 @dalchina's advice & its tutorial link are both likely to solve your problem but do note the last part of Dalchina's post because it is probably the quickest method in your particular case - enter shell:favorites into File explorer's address bar and it will take you straight to the folder the system is actually using for your IE Favorites. You can then set its Properties, Location tab to the folder you want to use. When you have done this, you could go to all the false [IE] Favorites folders you have been chasing around and you should find that none of them have a Properties, Location tab which means you can delete them.

3 I have always managed to recover from having messed up my user folder locations. If neither Dalchina's advice nor mine resolves your problem I suspect that your user profile has been corrupted.

4 Note that both @dalchina's post and mine relate to IE Favorites not Edge Favorites.

Best of luck,

Denis

KiwiTim · 26 Feb 2018

Thanks Try3 and dalchina! Putting the path into HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\ did the trick. Solved.

dalchina · 26 Feb 2018

Glad it was that simple!