Resolving Infinite Loading in File Explorer for Video Files
Have you ever experienced your file explorer getting stuck while loading a folder. You know, the way the green progress bar just keeps on loading. This issue can lead the File Explorer to enter a state where other folders may also become inaccessible, often requiring manual intervention such as restarting explorer.exe, signing out and signing back in, or even rebooting your system.
In my quest to resolve this issue, I performed a series of troubleshooting steps, including:
- Defragmenting my drive
- Dism /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
- sfc /scannow
- chkdsk /f /r /x
- Clearing out File Explorer thumnail cache
- Checking event logs of explorer.exe for possible crashes/issues
- Reinstalling VLC
Despite these efforts, the problem persisted.
After some digging, I discovered that the root cause of the problem lies in the thumbnail generation process. While temporarily switching views or disabling thumbnails proved to be a workaround, I knew this wasn’t the exact solution.
Thus I gathered all the video files in a folder and relocate them to other folders which I rarely use. A breakthrough came when I installed PowerToys, featuring a tool called LockSmith. Running this tool on the MKV folder revealed that a process called dllhost.exe was consistently locking the MKV files. Terminating this process allowed File Explorer to successfully load and generate thumbnails for some files, but the problem persisted due to recurring locks.
The best explanation I found was: “As an example, a COM object may be used in handling media files such as videos for the generation of a Windows Thumbnail. Sometimes the file; DLLHost.exe may hold the File Handle of the media file in an “Open” state and this may not allow that file to be moved or deleted. Thus causing a “file lock error”.”
Upon inspecting each file, it became evident that only x265/HEVC files were being locked, while x264 files generated thumbnails successfully. The focus narrowed down to x265/HEVC files as the root cause of the issue.
From what was now known, I looked into installed apps that could be handling HEVC Files. This unveiled the culprit: “HEVC Video Extensions” by Microsoft. Uninstalling this application proved to be the correct step as I no longer ran into this issue again, thus eliminating the infinite loading issue in File Explorer.
Additionally, you can install “HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer“, to generate thumbnails for HEVC files.
TL;DR:
In summary, the infinite loading issue in File Explorer for x265/HEVC video files is caused by the Microsoft’s “HEVC Video Extension“. Uninstalling it and installing “HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer” resolves the problem.
