In Windows 10, if I create a backup set within Norton Security that has a single file in it that fall in the path "F: > username > Documents > .... filename", the backup does not find any file in either Preview, or when the backup is run. If the same file is moved to a new folder in the path "F: > username > NewFolder > .... filename", both the preview and the backup work fine. Backup does not find any file or folder with the "Documents" folder in its path.
Any ideas?
Tom
Since Windows Vista or 7, strange things happen with the Documents or My Documents folder and even stranger in windows 7, 8, and 10 because symbolic links are used to make the data in these folders appear in different locations so that they can be shared with homegroups.
Here is an example.
As you can see, thats all my folders under C:\Users\Dave
I have my view settings to show all hidden folders and files and as you can see where I pointed the arrow, there is no Documents folder. It's not that you can't see it, there really is no such folder.
When I enter the "My Documents" folder I get this:
I'm just showing the address bar, but you can see how it shows C:\Users\Dave\My Documents
I think that would be the correct or actual path.
But something interesting happens when I click inside that address bar
Look how windows has changed the address bar to C:\Users\Dave\Documents
An incorrect path because as I showed you before there is not a "Documents" folder under \Dave
What it's showing is the re-direction, or the symbolic link between those 2 folders. (or actually one real folder and one not so real folder). It's also exactly what is shown as the location path under the properties of the "My Documents" shell folder in my first screenshot.
It's like somehow your symbolic link is working backwards and windows is changing the correct path into an incorrect path.
Dave
Thats the image I was trying to upload, I'm using another browser at the moment.
But I'm curious if you have Documents or My Documents in the path.
I'm in windows 7, your results may vary.
Open the start menu and click on your username. This opens explorer to your shell folders and has your user name in the address bar. Right click on "My Documents" and select properties. Click the location Tab and you should see this:
Hmm, I seem to be unable to upload an image. Never had that problem before.
But the property page I'm looking at shows the location of the "My Documents" folder as the standard location of: C:\users\Dave\Documents Below it there are 3 buttons, Restore Default, Move, and Find Target.
I assume for you if the folder (it's actually a symbolic link) was moved correctly it would be F:\users\username\Documents
Or does it have a path to ...\My Documents?
Dave
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I created new backup sets when troubleshooting this problems, and yes, the problem PC was upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10. After remembering a similar problem with two other apps, I posted the following on the Microsoft Community...
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I have three computers running Windows 10. One was purchased new with Windows 10, and two were upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I found three applications, Microsoft Groove Music, Microsoft Photos, and Norton Security Backup, that do not run on one of the two computers that were upgraded from Windows 7, but work fine on the other two computers. These three applications share a common method that appears to be the root of their failure to run properly.
Each of these programs require you to navigate to a file or folder to select which files the program will use; music files in the case of Groove Music, photo files in the case of Photos, and the files to back up in the case of Security Backup. In Windows 7, these files were located in folders called My Music, My Pictures, and My Documents. In Windows 10, these folders were renamed Music, Photos, and Documents. On the PC that was upgraded and works properly, after navigating to the desired file or folder from within the applications, the resulting path that is shown within the application is correctly C:\Users\User\ Pictures\ or C:\Users\Public\Pictures\, or C:\Users\User\Documents\, etc.
The computer that does not work properly has one difference. The location of the user data is not on the C:\ drive, but rather on a different drive, F:\ , for space reasons. When this computer was upgraded, the name of the user data folders were renamed from F:\username\My Documents to F:\username\Documents\ and F:\username\Pictures\ , etc. But, for the three applications that are not working, after navigating to the folders located on the F:\ drive, the paths shown in the applications are F:\username\My Pictures\ , F:\username\My Music\ , and F:\username\My Documents\ . Since these paths and folders no longer exist, none of these application are then able to find the files they need, and they come up blank when they are supposed to preview the files. None of these applications allow you to edit the path. Navigating to the file or folder is the only way to select the file of folder.
Something must be telling these application to map the Documents folder incorrectly to My Documents, etc. I understand that the Documents and My Documents folders are Windows Explorer shell folders, and entries in the Windows Registry set the subkey that tells application the path to the actual folders and paths that are mapped to the shell folders. But I am not a Windows Registry expert, so I do not know how to correct this problem. Searching the registry, I do see a number of entries where the data field shows something like /F/username/My Documents/…
How do you tell windows to correct the incorrect mapping to the My Xxxx folders?
Thanks,
Tom
I just tried a test backup set to include a file and a folder from the Documents folder in the User folder. I did not see what you are seeing.
Have you tried deleting the problem backup set and starting again?
Was your Win 10 install an upgrade from a previous OS, or a fresh install?
I just noticed that when the path to the file is shown in the "Items Included or Excluded from Backup: My Backup" window, the path is shown as "F:\username\My Documents\...\", whereas the actual path that was selected to enter the file into Backup is "F:\username\Documents\...\". Backup changes the path from "...\Documents\..." to "...\My Documents\...".
I don't see a way to actually edit the path within Backup or preventing this change from happening from within Backup.