Folders renaming themselves!?!? See gif as proof

I copied some stuff and noticed that a folder - Pictures & Pets had seemingly renamed itself to Pictures without asking or even notifying me. See this gif I made that shows it in action.

I've never seen anything like this before, and I've used Windows 12+ hours a day for well over a decade.

I just updated to a fresh Windows 10 install. The folders were initially created in Windows 7. If I create a new folder with the same name, I cannot replicate this anymore. This is only a problem when copying the actual folder that I originally created in Windows 7. Still, it makes me worried what other shenanigans it might be doing to my data without me knowing.

At a glance, no other folders copied from Windows 7 have this issue, including other folders with an ampersand in the name. No files seem to have been affected.

What in the heck is this?

dalchina said:

Hi, just a random thought- it's possible the folder name somehow includes a non-valid character (not visible). Renaming it - as you have- eliminates this.

Hmm, any way I could test that?

I'm afraid to open the link you posted. What is a *.gifv file I've never seen that before..

https://i.imgur.com/mOSakkY.gifv

ricardobohner said:

I'm afraid to open the link you posted. What is a *.gifv file I've never seen that before..

Imgur

...

Try3 said:

Is it possible that the problem folder is actually set as the user's Pictures folder on either machine?
If so then the apparent change of folder name is just a display name change and you'd see the full path correctly by going into the folder then selecting the text in the address bar [you need to actually select the text to see the actual path].

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I'd bet that @Aelius renamed their Pictures folder to Pictures & Pets while Windows is still displaying it as their 'Pictures' folder.


BTW @ricardobohner, a .gifv is just an animated gif. Quite safe to open. https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/arti...-What-is-GIFV-

Try3 said:

Is it possible that the problem folder is actually set as the user's Pictures folder on either machine?

If so then the apparent change of folder name is just a display name change and you'd see the full path correctly by going into the folder then selecting the text in the address bar [you need to actually select the text to see the actual path].

Denis

Bree said:

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I'd bet that @Aelius renamed their Pictures folder to Pictures & Pets while Windows is still displaying it as their 'Pictures' folder.


BTW @ricardobohner, a .gifv is just an animated gif. Quite safe to open. https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/arti...-What-is-GIFV-

Yep, sure enough it appears as "Pictures" when I click on the address bar.

So weird! But glad it's figured out.

Thanks guys!