Cannot rename folders anymore

[MdJ]

Problem solved see latest post.



For years I'am using FreeCommander and Irfanview on Windows (7 - 10) almost daily for dumping pictures from my camera's memory cards to external haddisks.
The files are stored chronologic with some specifics added: 180509 Amsterdam IJ flying swans.
So I insert a card into my computer. find the folder on the sd card in the left pannel from Freecommander and look for the date of the latest pictures. Then I make active the media folder of a connected external haddisk in the right pannel ; push f7 te create a new folder enter the date of the latest picturs in the create folder field and create a folder 180509. Next I select in the left pannel all pictures with date may 09 2018 and drag them to my new folder. In the thumbnail mode I see the contents of the folder and decide to add Amsterdam IJ flying swans to 180509. I click in the folderpane on the folder 180509 so that I can eddit the foldername directly and add the location and description of the pictures. I also judge and eddit the pictures with Irfanview and sometimes Freecommander build in viewer. I know that I have to close Irfanview first otherwise it will not be possible to rename a folder in FreeCommander.

Since last week it is almost impossible to rename a folder. If I do the message appears:

The action can’t be completed because the file is open in another program
CLose the folder or file and try again.

My only option is to close FreeCommander and rename the folders in Windows Explorer...

It has to do with the hidden file thumb.db that is in use so

I tried to rename after switching from thumbnailview to details.

Maybe it has to do with Windows 10 last update.

FreeCommander FreeCommanderXE 763 and 774 32 portable

Acer Aspire One Windows 10 32 last update April 30

[Marek]

Probably is the quick view of one file open. You can switch quick view with Ctrl+Q.

[MdJ]

Hello Marek, thank you for your quick response.
No that is not the cause of the problem. I know Quick view and of course I made shure that it was not active during renaming a folder.
After reading your comment I launched FreeCommander for the first time today, tried to rename a folder with images on C: but the message appeared again and by no means I cannot rename that folder. I tried Ctrl+Q 2x (on off) at no avail. In Windows Task manager is no application visible that could contain a file from that folder.

I remember last week when I was wrestling with this problem, I saw a message concerning Thumbs.db.

Now I will try to delete Thumbs.db before renaming the folder but this is also in use by FreeCommander so I cannot delete it.

So I closed FreeCommander and started Windows Explorer and deleted Thumbs.db in one folder containing images.

After starting FreeCommander again, I still cannot rename that particular folder.

Folders that does not contain images can be renamed.

[MdJ]

Today I started FreeCommander and I was able to rename a folder that contains images.
The problem arises after copying images from my camera sd card. So I created a folder with F7, gave it a name 180515, copied a selection from sd to the new folder. After judging the thumbnails, I wanted to extend the folder name. Renaming the folder by clicking the folder name was not possible anymore as described in former messages.

[Dreamer]

Few ideas:

- quick view panel might be invisible, try to enable it for both panels, if needed, then disable both and restart FC
- perhaps you opened 1 item/image in external program - and it was not correctly and completely closed
- I had some issue, so I had to refresh view manually, otherwise item was "locked" (it was fixed in 774)

Try to test with default settings and no plugins:

https://freecommander.com/forum/viewtop ... 1b2448#p28

[MdJ]

Hello Dreamer, thank you for your Ideas

As I already described in my first mail about this subject I am using IrfanView a lot and I'am aware that it is not possible to rename a file or folder when it is loaded in Irfaview or FreeCommanders internal viewer or any other program. For years I'am using Freecommander on a daily basis. So copying files from a sd card to an external disk and renaming files with FreeCommander is a routine I did hudreds of thousands times. I chose Freecommander because of the easy workflow for this type of jobs.

In my next mail I wrote that I even checked Taskmanager if there was a program open that maybe contained a file from the folder that I wanted to rename - what was very unlikely. Of course I tried to rename a folder after a fresh restart of Windows and FreeCommander. However at no avail.

And I pushed the refreshbutton from time to time. And changed from thumbnails to listview and removed Thumb.db with Windows Explorer.

By the way: I still can rename the folder in Windows explorer as I already explained. And that is also NOT possible when a file from the folder is opened in an other program.

To check this I just renamed a folder in Windows Explorer which succeeded while Freecommander (no QuickView ) is still active. This was not possible when a file from that folder was also opened in Irfanview. So there is no file open in FreeCommanders viewer.

After this operation I now can also rename a folder in FreeCommander... However 1 folder...The next folder produces the message

The action can’t be completed because the file is open in another program
CLose the folder or file and try again.

To check this again I repeated the last test: I rename a folder in Windows Explorer while FreeCommander is still active. I changed to FreeCommander Window and try to rename the next folder. That is not possible now.

I do not use plug-ins in FreeCommander.

I started FreeCommander to go back to all default settings. After that I was able to rename a folder. The folder content (file pane) was in detail view. Now a switched to thumbs and wanted to change the name of the same folder however that was not possible anymore.

Now I started FreeCommander according to your instructions from the promt with parameters for to go back to default settings and English. However renaming a folder was not possible.

[MdJ]

Hello Dreamer,
Today I read your instructions again and saw that you asked for two Quick Views in both panes.
I appologize for not reading that at once.
I made active Quick View in both window panes and got an error message:

Error loading...F:\Media\2018\05 Mei\180514\P13785.RW2 ievision.dll, ievision32.dll, ievision64.dll, ielib.dll, ielib32.dll or ielib64.dll not found

The First QV panes loaded as usual in the contrary pane without toolbar. The second panel caused the Error message and appeared also in the contrary pane but with a toolbar -this is unusual.

I repeated this with FC started with parameters on the Command prompt in the default mode. Now both QV panes had a toolbar. After klicking on ok the error message disappeared. After several attempts the left panel loaded content. And the error message appeared. After more efforts the loading of content in QV functioned normal without error messages.

However I still cannot rename a folder.



Ok have closed both views and restart FileCommander in the default mode.

I was able to rename 1 folder only...

[MdJ]

Hello Marek and Dreamer,

I still cannot rename folders that contain media in FreeCommander.
I carried out all your instructions and gave you feedback about the results verbal and visual.
I received no reactions from you both anymore.

Are you still investigating the problem?

Is Renaming folders not one of the most essential functions in a file explorer?

[Marek]

For a long time I tried to reproduce the problem unfortunately without success. It works fine for me.

I started FreeCommander to go back to all default settings. After that I was able to rename a folder. The folder content (file pane) was in detail view. Now a switched to thumbs and wanted to change the name of the same folder however that was not possible anymore.

It means - you can rename any number of folders if thumbnail view is not active?
How do you start the rename operation? Select one folder in the tree and then using F2?

[MdJ]

Hello Marek,

Thank you for letting me know that this problem has still your attention.

The problem arises when I try to rename folders that contain images.

So I can rename folders with text documents or mp4's but not folders with jpg's and RW2 (Panasonic raw).

However sometimes I can rename 1 folder with images. For instance after a fresh start from Windows and Freecommander I can somtimes rename 1 folder. The next folder I can't rename anymore. Another instance: Today I changed the settings in FreeCommander from copying, deleting and moving to the Windows method again. After that I could rename 1 folder however 1 folder only.

This renaming problem raised with version 763 portable and remains after I installed the newest version 774.

I downloaded version 763 on 6 December 2017. Until this renaming problem arose, I used 763 daily till 4 may 2018 so about 5 months without any problem.

This make me think that Windows Update may cause the problem.

Normally I rename a folder in the folder tree by selecting it with a left mouseclick followed by a long left mouseclick.

Your question about how I rename a folder, hit upon an idea to rename a folder in the file pane instead to rename a folder in the folder tree, what I do normally.

And what do you think...THIS WORKED! I can rename a folder with image files in the file pane. And the renamed folder will appear in the folder tree.

However, this is not very practical for renaming folders that contain images, because I like to see the thumbs while renaming. But maybe this will give you some more insight into what the cause of the problem is.

[Marek]

Unfortunatelly I do not have Windows 10 32 bit for testing.
FreeCommander 32 bit on Windows 10 64 bit works fine.
Please check the site for thumbnails cache problems: https://www.ghacks.net/2014/03/12/thumb ... s-windows/

[MdJ]

Hallo Marek

It is not possible anymore to rename a folder in the file pane all the time as I discussed in former post.
I tried to carry out the appropriate instructions I found in https://www.ghacks.net/2014/03/12/thumb ... s-windows/:

The article was written in 2014 and deals with Windows XP, Vista and beyond.
I carried out the instruction:

"...If you do not have access to the Group Policy Editor on your system, you can disable the generation of thumbnail caches on Windows using the Registry instead.

• Tap on the Windows-key, type regedit, and hit enter.

• Navigate to the following key using the folder structure on the left: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

• Locate the preference DisableThumbnailCache on the right.

• Change its value from 0 to 1 to disable the feature.

• If you want to restore it at a later point in time, change it back to 0.

..."

However HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced does not have the preference DisableThumbnailCache on my computer.

I did a complete search for DisableThumbnailCache in the registry at no avail.

In C: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer I removed all the entries starting beginning with thumbcache.
Next I started FreeCommander and I was able to rename 1 folder.

I did a search in a folder on the external disk where I store my photographs for Thumbs.db. Several hundreds where found. I ordered to delete them all. All but one where deleted with the message that it was in use by a program. In Window Explorer I located the folder, Closed FreeCommander and deleted that particular Thumbs.db. Afterwards I was able to rename 1 folder.

Because I can't prevent Explorer from creating Thumbs.db it will be created again when I switch to the thumbnails view.

The next thing I tried, was to create an entry DisableThumbnailCache in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced and changed its value to 1.

One newly created Thumbs.db I couldn't remove in both FreeCommander and Windows Explorer. I closed all the programs in Windows and tried to delete it with a command prompt. That was also not possible and I got the message that the file was in use by a process. BUT WHAT PROGRAM? The only program was the Command Prompt.

After having restarted Windows, I still couldn't remove that particular Thumbs.db with the command prompt. I started FreeCommander and went to another folder and tried to rename it. There was no Thumbs.db in the folder and I could rename it. I could also rename other folders that also contained no Thumbs.db. For some time It looks like I could rename folders again in FreeCommander and everything turned to normal. There where no Thumbs.db files created in the folders when I switched to thumbnails view. It seems that my newly created registry entry worked.

Now I copied a dayload pictures from a sd card to a new folder as always created with F7 and gave it a name 180525. When I made the folder active I saw that a new Thumbs.db was created... I tried to rename the folder but there was the message again:
Cannot edit because a file from the folder is in use by another process. This Thumbs.db makes that I cannot rename other folders on my computer and I cannot remove it even not in a command prompt and Windows Explorer and FreeCommander closed.

All the Thumbs.db I removed are back again. So my new Entry in the registry didn't work.

resumé: When a make a folder with images active in list view, and that folder contains no Thumbs.db, I can rename it. When I switch to Thumbs view, the file Thumbs.db is created and I cannot rename that folder anymore. And I cannot remove Thumbs.db in FreeCommander and Windows explorer. Maybe it can be removed after a restart of Windows.

Sigh. This took me a whole day!

And leaves me with a pretty useless FreeCommander that worked perfect before Windows update of 30 April...

[ralfso]

Hello,
the problem of "thumbs.db is in use" is discussed a lot.
https://www.google.com/search?q=thumbs.db+is+in+use

I think your registry entry only disables thumbcache for local drives and not for network drives because you say that in all folders is a thumbs.db.
A solution is given in:
https://www.howtogeek.com/210764/fix-fi ... eneration/
With the registry entry "DisableThumbsDBOnNetworkFolders".

Maybe this helps also in your case if the folders are on network drives.

I don't think that the problem is related to freecommander-update but to window-updates.

Addition: Now I found on my computer also a thumbs.db in every folder with pictures (also local folders). I've no problems with renaming the folder (but Win 10 1803 64-bit)

[MdJ]

Thank you ralfso for your sugestions. I will try them out.

I work with external USB drives only.

About the updates we agree... I also think that it is related with Windows-update as I mentioned in my last post:

In the autumn last year I installed a little program that had to prevent Windows to update. But in April 30 this year, Microsoft sneaked around the gates of pass win-updates-disabler-portable... and updated my computer. Before 30 April I had no troubles with the thousands of Thumbs.db in thousands of folders on my external and internal drives and renaming folders in FreeCommander. Since that update I had big troubles with Irfanview (could not make irfanView the standard viewer for all relevant image formats like jpg, jpeg, ping, bmp,..anymore), making network contact with a Windows Xp computer via Windows network and now with Thumbs.db in FreeCommander. I even consider to reverse that update if that is still possible.

[MdJ]

Hello Marek,
Because I still cannot say goodbye to FreeCommander, I keep on using it and try to find out why it can't rename folders with images.

Instead of what I determined in my last post, I updated Windows instead of reversing the last update.
And to my surprise after the update, I could rename folders again. All troubles appeared to have been solved.
So I went updating and renaming all the folders I created since the renaming folder problem.
However I was not completely satisfied. The thumbnails that always looked nice in the past, didn't look that great again.
Some thumbs depicted the whole image correctly, other depicted a thumbnails size crop of the 1:1 image.
But renaming of folders went great! All renaming troubles appeared to be vanished.

I found out that FreeCommander did not produce a Thumbs.db in newly created folders anymore.
Had this to do because of the registry entry I made: DisableThumbnailCache with value 1 ? (see former post)
That would be strange because when I noticed it had no effect, I removed the entry and that was a day before I updated Windows.
This made me curious and because I was not satisfied with the ugly thumbnails, I decided to place DisableThumbnailCache with value 1 in the registry again.
The effect was that Freecommander created Thumbs.db again... The thumbs looked great again but the renaming-folders-trouble rose also again...
Another effect, what I also noticed since the advent of the folder renaming problem and I had not mentioned yet, was
That Freecommander produces only a part from all the thumbnails in the folder instead of all the thumbnails in one go. I had to push the refresh button sometimes several times to get all the thumbs. And in case of a folder with a lot of images it produces only four thumbnails.
I changed the registry entry DisableThumbnailCache to 0 again so at least I could rename folders again. However FreeCommander kept on producing thumbs.db's even after a restart of Windows and it still cannot rename folders anymore. So the registry entry seems to have no effect anymore.
Eventually, I removed the entry from the registry again but at no avail.

So the renaming problems are related to the Thumbs.db for sure.
But is the inability of Freecommander to create all thumbnails in one go also not an indication to this problem?
Maybe it cannot complete the 'create thumbnails task' and for that reason it cannot set the folder free to rename it.