7 Ways: Fix Files Not Showing in Folders in Windows 10/8/7

Why are files not showing in folder?

Have you ever encountered files suddenly disappearing from a folder? Or, a folder shows there are files but it is empty? In fact, many users have met the problem of files not showing in folder. There are many possible reasons for this problem, such as:

• Files are hidden.
• Files are deleted or damaged due to virus or malware intrusion.
• Your hard disk file system is damaged, causing files not to be displayed normally.
• Files are moved to other locations without asking.

Whatever the reason, luckily the problem is not difficult to fix. If you want to recover disappearing files, the solutions below can help you.

How to recover files not showing in folder

If your folder is opened on a local hard drive, try pressing F5 or right-clicking on a blank space and clicking Refresh. If your folder was opened on an external hard drive, try re-plugging it to computer with another port. This will avoid files not being shown up because they are not loaded out.

Way 1. Show hidden files

Sometimes, files in folder are not showing up because they are hidden and you cannot access them. To display hidden files, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Press Windows + E to open This PC page.

Step 2. Click View and tick Hidden items.

To get more file/folder viewing settings, you can click Options, click View, and check Show hidden files, folders, and drives to hit Apply.

Way 2. Run a malware scan

If the files are not hidden and you have not deleted them, there is a high possibility that they were deleted or moved by malware or a virus. You can use the anti-virus software that comes with your computer or third-party anti-virus software you installed on your computer to perform a full anti-virus to make sure your PC is safe.

Way 3. Relaunch Windows Explorer

Files not showing up in folder can be caused by the wrong Windows Explorer. You can restart it to have a try.

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc simultaneously to run Task Manager. Then, choose Windows Explorer and click Restart. Then, open your folder again to see if files come back.

Way 4. Check your hard drive

Have you checked your hard drive? If the file system of the hard drive is damaged, your files may not appear properly in the folder, causing saved files not showing up in folder. Here's how to repair your hard drive and recover missing files to folders.

Step 1. Right-click the hard drive that contains your missing files, and select the Properties option.

Step 2. Click on the Tool menu and press Check to check your hard drive file system errors. Then, click Scan drive.

Step 3. If there are errors on your hard drive, you can click the Repair drive button to fix it.

Way 5. Run hardware and device troubleshooter

Running the hardware and device troubleshooter is also an efficient method to repair hardware errors and fix Document/Word/Excel files not showing in folder.

Step 1. Click Windows Start, select Settings, and tap on Update & Security.

Step 2. Click on Troubleshoot, then hit Run the troubleshooter under Hardware and Devices.

Way 6. Search for files

There are times when you can't see files in folder not hidden, they are not deleted but moved somewhere else. You can search your computer and check for missing files.

You can directly type your filename in the Windows search box to check if there are the wanted files.

Way 7. Recover missing files with data recovery software

If you have tried all the above methods and still cannot the files not showing in folder, they may have been completely deleted from your computer. MyRecover is a perfect recovery tool that can help you. This is a professional and free recovery software specially designed for Windows users, which can easily retrieve disappeared and deleted files/folders.

Useful Features of MyRecover
▶ Quickly retrieve files lost due to various reasons such as virus attacks and accidental deletion, and restore them in simple three steps.
▶ Provide to recover files from external hard drive, USB flash drive, computer, and any other storage devices.
▶ Support 200+ types of data recovery, including photo recovery, file recovery, video recovery, email recovery, and more.
▶ You can restore files up to 500MB for free.

Simple steps to recover files not showing in folder in Windows 10/8/7:

Step 1. Download and run MyRecover. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. It will list all missing or deleted files and folders. You can preview them, or directly use File Search or File Filter to locate the desired files.

Step 3. Select the files you want to recover and click Recover Files to save them to the specified location.

The bottom line

You can easily restore files not showing in folder with the effective solution above.

File missing is a common problem that all computer users may meet. To avoid heavy losses due to the loss of important data, we recommend that you use a professional and efficient data recovery tool like MyRecover to retrieve lost data comprehensively.