Windows Explorer Stuck on Cancelling

Does this ever happen to you? When try to copy a file and suddenly you want to cancel it or in my case I was try to write it over a network drive and I lost the connection.

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But regardless what's the reason this annoying box just doesn't go away. Anyone know why this is happening? or How I can prevent such happen over and over again?

Jonathan

Posted 2009-09-01T23:08:35.187

Reputation: 1 857

Or just robocopy (command line alternative to cp/copy) everything from now on. – 1234567 – 2017-05-23T23:26:39.657

5The same thing happens to me, but it's not always network related. – alex – 2009-09-02T06:47:39.803

Answers

Not sure why it happens, but I get it too. To get rid of this annoying dialog you need to kill explorer and restart it:

from Task Manager, Processes tab, find explorer.exe and choose "End Process"
still in Task Manager, select File → New Task → type explorer → OK

Gus Cavalcanti

Posted 2009-09-01T23:08:35.187

Reputation: 199

3Are you certain this doesn't corrupt any files which were partially copied? – Fund Monica's Lawsuit – 2016-05-11T20:20:07.833

Try a copy program that handles exceptions better like TeraCopy or Unstoppable Copier. Both free, fast, and far more reliable than Windows' native copy.

http://teracopy-portable.en.softonic.com/

http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29

user8095

Posted 2009-09-01T23:08:35.187

Reputation: 575

This... doesn't answer the question of "How can I keep explorer from getting stuck while canceling". It should be a comment at the most, not an answer. – Fund Monica's Lawsuit – 2016-05-11T20:19:30.113

You shouldn't use softonic to download anything, it comes with loads of adware. – Arrrow – 2020-02-05T16:56:37.697

They will probably hit a network timeout in this case, too. There's not too much you can do about it. – Joey – 2009-09-02T05:11:36.643

thanks, I tried TeraCopy before, but I want to know why and what caused this. Are you suggesting the reason it stuck there is because the Windows Explorer itself doesn't have a good exception handles ? – Jonathan – 2009-09-02T05:14:00.757

Explorer isn't very forgiving when a network connection drops during a copy procedure or even when a document is open over the network. More often than not it just locks up, rather than timing out gracefully and moving on.... I'm not sure there's any "right" answer other than trying to locate the networking problem. – user8095 – 2009-09-03T01:51:41.020

Does the "More Details" arrow show any other info, like an error code, which you could search on?

Also, as paulsoares said, try a different copier. Certainly FastCopy, while being, erm, fast, also gives some info of problems. Try it once and see if it tells you anything useful.

outsideblasts

Posted 2009-09-01T23:08:35.187

Reputation: 6 297

I dont think there is any way to genuinely fix this problem. Happens to me at random as well. It even happens on my laptop when i cancel a copying from a DVD drive.

Andrew Keith

Posted 2009-09-01T23:08:35.187

Reputation: 356