windows 11, cant see hidden files in folder (4 Viewers)

[smiler44]

I have a folder, that if I right click the folder via file explorer and then click properties, it shows there are 42 files in the folder. If I just click the folder it says it is empty.
I have clicked the view tab at the top of the screen, clicked show and then clicked hidden items and still I cant see any files.
I don't even know how these files got into the folder, as when I had this problem previously, I deleted the folder and then created a new one.

Any idea how these files are getting into the folder and how on earth do I get to see them. I will guess they are all picture files.


thank you smiler44

 

[Gasman]

You could try a DOS command window and DIR?

 

[smiler44]

Thank you Gasman, I would not know what to do. Could you give me further instructions on what to do please?
Thanks

smiler44

 

[arnelgp]

or even use the DOS, Attrib command.

use switches -H (remove hidden attribute), -R (remove read-only attribute).

on the folder:

Attrib *.* -r -h

 

[Gasman]

Click the magnifying glass on the task bar. Type in cmd and press enter.
That should open a DOS command window (black background)
Navigate to the folder. This takes me to a certain folder on the cd F drive (cd temp\db) where I keep all dbs that I try to help with.
To get there from the default C: drive I had to select that drive first with f:. You might not need to do that.
When in that folder, the prompt should change to that folder, type in DIR

Then when in the folder enter
dir /a:h

 

[smiler44]

or even use the DOS, Attrib command.

use switches -H (remove hidden attribute), -R (remove read-only attribute).

on the folder:

Attrib *.* -r -h

I tried this and got a few "Not resetting system File" lines

smiler44

 

[arnelgp]

if there are system files, you can remove their System attribute:

Attrib *.* -s -h -r

attrib switches are command-line options used with the attrib command to display or change file attributes, such as +r to set a file as read-only or -h to remove the hidden attribute. Switches like /s and /d allow you to apply these changes to subdirectories and directories, respectively. 
Attribute switches

Use a + to add an attribute or a - to remove it:

+r/-r: Sets/clears the read-only attribute.
+h/-h: Sets/clears the hidden attribute.
+s/-s: Sets/clears the system attribute.
+a/-a: Sets/clears the archive attribute.
+i/-i: Sets/clears the not content indexed attribute.
+v/-v: Sets/clears the integrity attribute.
+x/-x: Sets/clears the no scrub attribute.

 

[cheekybuddha]

I have clicked the view tab at the top of the screen, clicked show and then clicked hidden items and still I cant see any files.

If you go to Explorer options, and then View tab, you can uncheck 'Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)'.

That might reveal your files.

 

[smiler44]

Click the magnifying glass on the task bar. Type in cmd and press enter.
That should open a DOS command window (black background)
Navigate to the folder. This takes me to a certain folder on the cd F drive (cd temp\db) where I keep all dbs that I try to help with.
To get there from the default C: drive I had to select that drive first with f:. You might not need to do that.
When in that folder, the prompt should change to that folder, type in DIR
View attachment 122057
Then when in the folder enter
dir /a:h

View attachment 122058

I get C:\Users\Sagen> and I cant change this line to c:\users\sagen\documents\ dads music

smiler44

 

[Gasman]

You cannot have a space after the \

 

[smiler44]

If you go to Explorer options, and then View tab, you can uncheck 'Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)'.

View attachment 122059

That might reveal your files.

Thanks, this I managed to do. I have again deleted the folder and re-created it . I can restore the old folder later and see what happens if I follow this process again with the restored folder.

thank you

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Any idea how these files are getting into the folder and how on earth do I get to see them. I will guess they are all picture files.

This might be an unusual problem with permissions and/or file locks. IN THEORY, it is possible to mark a file for deletion but not actually delete it, perhaps because at the moment someone or some task has a file lock on it that has delayed/deferred final deletion. Such files are in "limbo" in that they can no longer be opened or examined but the folder (which is actually a file itself) might still contain location info regarding those files. That is, due to an incomplete deletion, remnants remain in the folder so that final cleanup CAN occur at some point.

Normally, you have to issue special commands to delete a non-empty folder because the general rule is that a folder must be empty in order to be deleted. But if all content is already marked for delete, the file system merely "cleans up the trash" by finishing the deletion when you delete the folder. And in that case, you CAN delete a folder that appears to have files in it.

I emphasized "IN THEORY" above because that situation isn't supposed to happen very often. How the files get there is a different question. Since you can't actually see the files normally, but Dave's (cheekybuddha's) suggestion did something, I have to ask... did it reveal the files, and what file type were they? Because deleting hidden system files that somehow got into an arbitrary folder is its own kind of odd. The question is, what operations were occurring in that folder?

 

[smiler44]

Thankyou for the help. I do not think I need to restore the old folder. I have just found, having much earlier today taken the advice given, some jpg files in the folder that should only have mp3 files in it.
Looks like they were created just after 7.30 pm this evening but how, is beyond me!

I am running an Excel macro playing mp3 files via windows media player. It randomly selects a song to play and once it has played it, moves it to another directory so it is not picked again. Once there is only a song or two left it will move all the songs back.

A work around, will be for me to have the macro run a check to see if there are any jpg files in the directory and delete them.

smiler44

 

[Gasman]

Look at the images. Might be album covers?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If you have "auto play" set up for the MP3 files, that means that SYSTEM is running the media player. You can control that because, if you are a typical Windows user, your primary account on your PC is an administrator. If you looked at the detailed security settings on the .JPG files, you might see some permissions different from the ordinary files.

 

[smiler44]

Look at the images. Might be album covers?

I think you are right. How are these jpg's being created?

smiler44

 

[smiler44]

If you have "auto play" set up for the MP3 files, that means that SYSTEM is running the media player. You can control that because, if you are a typical Windows user, your primary account on your PC is an administrator. If you looked at the detailed security settings on the .JPG files, you might see some permissions different from the ordinary files.

I dont fully understand but this is the line of code that uses windows media player to play the song
Shell "C:\Users\sagen\Documents\me\wmplayer /play /close " & filetoplay

filetoplay being the song

Any idea on what permissions may be different?

smiler44