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Quick access is pinning all recently used folders without me manually taking action in the normal way. All the fixes online detail how to prevent recently used folders that are not pinned pinned showing in the side pane. This is not the issue. Currently I can see pinned folders and then recently used folders below them. Seeing recently used folders in the side pane is very helpful, I just don't want them to be pinned without me choosing them. I would like to maintain the status quo and see my pinned folders, and then the recently used, non-pinned folders below, as it has been for years. TIA p.s. the tags field required for this question submission is BS. No obvious tags recognised. Anti-user.
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Hello there, In File Explorer, on the View ribbon, click Options. On the resulting dialog in the Privacy section at the bottom of the General tab, turn off the option to show recently used folders to Quick Access Save that setting, then unpin any folders you do not want to appear in Quick Access. Hope this resolves your Query !! --If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer--
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Sorry for bring back this topic but I'm facing the same problem as described and I'm not sure the question was answered properly. Using this method will remove every folder listed in the quick access and this isn't the problem.
The problem is having the pin appearing automatically next to new folders without user interaction. This is super inconvenient to have to unpin some random folders that you didn't choose to pin.
Keeping folders in the quick access can actually be quite useful sometimes and I'd like to still have them but remove the "pinning them without user's consent" part of it.
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Agreed, this is very annoying. I want folders to appear in there. But I don't want them pinned unless I pin them
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I had this issue earlier today, so I followed the instructions you gave here, but neither of the privacy options were checked as active. I'm just wondering how it's possible that these recent folders suddenly started getting pinned when the privacy options are not checked.
I did have this problem in the past and it turns out that the pinned folders are just a bug in the display. The folders aren't really pinned because they will get reset at some point. If you open a new explorer window they might not be pinned at all in this new one. Really annoying to have the display wrong but the functionality seems to works correctly
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I think this is the correct answer as on checking the items are not pinned. The issue is it a bit harder to tell which items are pinned and which items are there as recently or often used.
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See the other answer - it's not a display bug, it's an option in File Explorer
