Certain file types (.ogg, .ogx) take a full minute to rename or delete

Hello!

I've been struggling with this problem at least since September, now. I do a lot of audio work and I'm required to work with Ogg files quite a lot, but I've had to postpone any work related to them because of this. I'm not sure exactly when it happened (I can only say somewhere between July 22nd and September 23rd, the last time I successfully used an Ogg file and the day that I noticed this problem, respectively) and haven't been able to pinpoint any system changes in that time that might have caused it.

Certain file operations freeze up Windows Explorer when I use them on files with the .ogg and .ogx extensions, and only those files, as far as I can tell. Attempting to rename one causes Explorer to stop responding for a full minute before finally changing the name, and trying to delete one causes absolutely nothing to happen (Explorer doesn't even freeze) for a minute until the file is finally moved to the Recycle Bin. Restoring them from the Recycle Bin is the same as that. Making a copy (copy/paste) of the file actually works normally, even within the same folder, but then trying to rename or delete that file still takes a minute. Any other file extension works as it's supposed to and I can rename or delete them instantly, and I can even save an Ogg file with another extension (e.g. test.abc instead of test.ogg) and Windows will treat it normally, but, if I then rename it to have a .ogg extension, it'll start taking a minute to delete/rename it. Even more confusingly, if I take a file that isn't an Ogg file and give it the .ogg extension, Windows will treat it completely normally and be able to delete/rename it instantly.

The same thing happens with folders - trying to rename or delete a folder containing an Ogg-encoded file also takes a minute. This extends to files and folders made before I started having this problem.

I've tried deleting and renaming them through the command prompt and that gives the same result - cmd just doesn't do anything for a full minute before the file is finally altered, although it doesn't freeze. I have confirmed that the problem is not present in Safe Mode, but it is present during a clean boot as described in this thread: Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts

I'm honestly stumped on where to go from here. I've never seen a problem like this in all of my time using Windows since 95 and haven't been able to find any support threads anywhere with this particular problem - the closest that I've found is people having similar problems with all files, not just a specific file extension. I'd really appreciate any suggestions on what to do.

Windows 10 version: 1903 (OS Build 18362.476)

dalchina said:

Hi, does this happen if you disable shell extensions too using e.g. Shellexview (free)?

Fix Slow or Freezing Right Click Context Menu in Windows

And can you post a screenshot of your task manager when a slow operation is under way, organising any column of interest high to low?
To post a screenshot please use the Insert Image icon above your post.

With which program are these file types associated?

Thanks for replying! I tried disabling shell extensions like in the guide (as far as disabling all non-Microsoft extensions) and that seemed to make no difference, unfortunately.

.ogg files are associated with Audacity. I've tried completely uninstalling it, but that also didn't make a difference. I just looked at Default Applications and .ogg isn't listed in there at all, though, oddly. Could that be related? .ogx files are associated with "Films & TV". On a hunch, I tried associating .ogg with another program (Foobar2000) and back to Audacity. The problem was still there both while they were associated with Foobar and when I associated them back with Audacity, but something slightly odd happened in the "default apps by file type" menu - .ogg appeared in there as it's supposed to be, but another one also appeared in there called ".ogg_auto_file", which isn't associated with anything. I can't find any information about this anywhere.

I've attached a few images - a screenshot each of Task Manager while renaming a file (note the "not responding"), changing the name back after renaming it (it didn't change to "not responding", but the "renaming" dialogue was present but not doing anything - "Time remaining" just said "calculating" the whole time), and one of Explorer as it normally is. I didn't notice any difference in any of the CPU/memory/disk/etc. columns. There's also one of the renaming dialogue from when I was undoing the rename of a file that I was testing it with, and the ".ogg_auto_file" thing that appeared in Default Apps.

dalchina said:

Out of curiosity- what happens if you try renaming one of these using a command prompt dialogue?

A little bizarre - the results were all over the place. Testing on the same file (just a song in my Music folder that was ripped as an Ogg file), I renamed it "a.ogg", which was instant, then back to the original name, which took a minute, then "b.ogg", which took about twenty seconds, then to a very long string of "aaa", which took about the same time, then back to the original name again, which was about thirty seconds. So it's still taking a long time, although not as long as through Explorer. Feels like there's a chance that it might be a red herring, but I'm making a note of it.

dalchina said:

You could use Autoruns (free from MS) to disable more.. e.g. starting from a clean boot.
From your task manager screenshots there's a lot going on that most users might not have- Corsair utilities, Bonjour for example.

I'm having a look at Autoruns now. I'll get a restore point set up before I do anything with it, though. Is there a way to save its list to a file so that you can see if there are any likely culprits, or should I just go through everything and see what I can find? Is there anything that I shouldn't disable, aside from Microsoft programs? Sorry, this is going a little deeper than I'm used to, so I'm looking into guides to make sure that I do it right.

dalchina said:

Try turning off search indexing and retest.

I just tried disabling and stopping Window Search through services.msc. No change when I do that, unfortunately.

dalchina said:

How are your .ogg files produced?

A few different ways - some through Audacity, some via rendering in FL Studio, some ripped from CDs using Foobar2000, some downloaded, etc. It seems to be any kind of Ogg file created in any way except for taking a file that wasn't encoded as an Ogg file and giving it a .ogg extension.

Try3 said:

Are the .ogg files produced by an installed application already with the .ogg extension or do you have to change the extenion to .ogg yourself? If you don't rename them to .ogg yourself then don't even bother reading the rest of this post.

They're already named as "[file].ogg" when they're created (via Audacity, FL Studio, Foobar2000, etc.), but thanks, anyway!

I seem to be having no luck with Autoruns, unfortunately. After creating a disk image with Macrium Reflect, I've gone through (from a clean boot every time) and disabled every item in the Logon tab, everything in the Explorer tab, the only non-Windows Defender item under Scheduled Tasks (CCleanerSkipUAC), everything that appears under Services (even though they're disabled with a clean boot, anyway), every driver that I'd trust to disable without causing problems, and even everything under Codecs. None of them made a difference to the problem. All of the other tabs were empty. (I had "Hide Microsoft entries" checked, although I can't see any Microsoft entries that might be causing it anyway.)

I also tried disabling Malwarebytes completely because it was starting itself automatically from a clean boot, but no luck there.