thumbs.db the file is open in windows explorer

Question

All the time I have the problem that I cannot delete - move - rename folders in Windows 7 (also applies to windows 10) on network drives because of the thumbs.db file. It complains: "The action can't be completed because the file is open in Windows Explorer." I found something in a long thread that works for me.

Answer 1

short answer:

windows 7: In explorer: Change file display settings from "details" to "Content"

windows 10: In explorer: View->Layout->List

Now the thumbs.db file can be removed.

Long answer:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/ca2cbc1a-362f-4f01-a8f8-6f05112f1915/windows-7-bug-explorer-locks-thumbsdb-in-most-recently-viewed-folder?forum=w7itprogeneral:

I accidentally came across a slightly easier fix for this bug. Instead of setting "Turn off the display of thumbnails and only display icons on network folders" to Enable, I simply changed the Windows Explorer display setting from "Details" to "Content". Then I was able to delete my Thumbs.db files without any complaints from Windows 7, even though I have thumbnails enabled. After deleting the offending file(s), I just restore the display to "Details" again.

thanks my unknown hero robster8192

Answer 2

I had this issue in Windows 11 on a network share, and none of the above solutions worked (changed view / layout, cut/paste on local machine).

However I was able to rename it to _.db, and then I was able to delete the file.

Answer 3

I had this issue, but the file was on a Windows network share. Changing the view didn't allow me to delete the file. What I was able to do was to cut and paste the folder containing the Thumbs.db file to my local machine. Once I did that the folder and its Thumbs.db deleted without issue.