Slow loading Downloads folder in Windows 11/10
By slow-loading here we mean, when you try to open the folder it takes a few seconds to display its contents. This is normally accompanied by a green loading address bar saying Working on it – which is very annoying. This might seem strange to you as all other folders are opening just fine. This problem can occur on normal hard drives and SSDs both.
The main reason behind this problem is that the folder may have been optimized for viewing photos or other media formats. So, it takes a little while to load all the files and their thumbnails. But in the case of the Downloads folder, it usually contains all kinds of files such as documents, zip files, audio/video files, etc. So, there is no need to optimize this folder for media files only. Doing so is only going to make Windows File Explorer slow in loading its contents and thumbnails which are non-existent for most files.
Downloads folder takes a long time to open
The fix to this issue is as follows:
In this way, you can make the folder content display faster. Now opening the Downloads folder would not take much time and you will be able to see the effects immediately. Remember that these steps apply to all kinds of folders on Windows. You can optimize any folder for whatever type of content it has.
If the folder is still taking time to display content, then probably your system has some other issue. You might want to check out our guide on Disk Error Checking and fixing 100% Disk Usage. Similar read: Downloads Folder not responding in Windows.
