[Fix] File Explorer Automatically Scrolls / Jumps to Top of Folder in Windows 10
Today in this article, we are going to address a very annoying and irritating issue present in Windows 10. Many Windows 10 users have reported us this issue in past and this issue is present in all Windows 10 versions and editions.
Table of Contents
PROBLEM SYMPTOM:
The issue occurs when the user is browsing files and folders in File Explorer (also known as Windows Explorer, This PC and My Computer). The user is scrolling down in a folder/directory and suddenly File Explorer jumps or scrolls to the top of the folder automatically. Imagine if the user was selecting multiple files/folders, renaming a file/folder, once this issue occurs File Explorer forgets user’s selection or activity and it opens the folder from scratch like the user just opened it. In such situations, the user is forced to start the task from beginning.
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This uncontrollable scrolling issue in Windows 10 occurs randomly and very often after every 5-10 minutes and sometimes seconds and when this problem occurs frequently and regularly and scroll bar keeps jumping back to top in File Explorer while browsing folders, it starts annoying the user.
It seems a known scrolling issue or bug present in Windows 10 operating system and many readers have complained about it.
PROBLEM REASON:
This weird scrolling issue occurs when the user has activated and enabled background slideshow feature in Windows 10 which automatically changes Desktop wallpaper at a fixed interval. Along with the wallpaper slideshow feature, the option to automatically pick an accent color from desktop background is also enabled.
When these 2 options are enabled in a Windows 10 device, as soon as the desktop wallpaper is changed by slideshow feature, Windows 10 automatically changes the File Explorer window frame’s color to match the current desktop background accent color and when this happens, Windows 10 automatically refreshes the whole File Explorer window to apply the accent color which causes this annoying scrolling to top problem. Since Windows 10 refreshes File Explorer window, the current scroll position, user’s selection and focus is lost and the directory is re-opened as fresh.
So it’s a bug which occurs when wallpaper slideshow and pick accent color features are enabled in Windows 10.
PROBLEM SOLUTION:
The fix for this big issue is quite simple and small. You just need to disable “automatically pick an accent color from desktop background” option and the problem will disappear. You can also disable wallpaper slideshow feature and set a static single wallpaper to stay on safe side.
If you are also facing this irritating problem and scroll bar in File Explorer keeps jumping to top of folder regularly, following steps will help you in fixing this uncontrollable scrolling issue:
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1. Open Settings app from Start Menu. Alternatively, you can press WIN+I keys together to open Settings directly.
2. Now click on Personalization icon in Settings app and then click on Colors tab present in left-side pane.
PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch this page using “ms-settings:colors” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.
3. In right-side pane, under “Choose your color” section, you’ll see “Automatically pick an accent color from my background” option. This option should be enabled in your computer.
Uncheck or disable this option and it should solve the scrolling to top issue in your Windows 10 device.
You can also disable background slideshow feature and set a permanent single wallpaper using following steps:
4. Under Personalization, click on Background tab present in left-side pane.
Now select “Picture” option from the Background drop-down box. You can select any desired wallpaper as desktop background.
You can also set the background to Solid Color.
That’s it. Now you can browse files and folders in File Explorer without worries and scroll bar will no longer jump to the top without your permission.
Also Check:
[Fix Windows 10 Bug] If You Change System Time (Zone), Start Menu doesn’t Save Your Changes
This is not a fix. My window in file manager jumps even when the slideshow is not changing the image, as a matter of fact i turned the slideshow off and it still happens.
Tryed all the fixes and still happens
Does NOT work, I have ONE picture and NO color changes, NEVER had any automatic anything. Your solution does NOT work. I have looked on the internet over the past year or two for this problem – everybody blames the color picking thing – nobody has a solution that works.
Brilliantly simple fix – been driving me mad for weeks!
Interestingly, I was certain that I had selected a colour not letting the system choose, only went I went in to the COLOUR tab did I see the extra step and that it was the system choosing an accent colour.
For those that didn’t get it to work, I would suggest checking that they have followed this step.
Doesn’t help at all. None of those boxes were ever checked and I still deal with this bug + the laptop screen light keeps turning brighter, usually at the same moment the first bug occurs. Any thoughts on it?
Dose any one have a proper fix for this yet
This problem only started happening for me with upgrade 2021-02 (KB4601050)
Update 2021-03 (KB5000802) did not fix it.
None of the colour settings etc work for me.
Extremely annoying and making the system almost unusable.
eg when trying to type this into the comment box, the focus kept changing.
THIS MUST BE FIXED A.S.A.P.
STILL not fixed.
It’s not Accent Colour
It’s not Background Image Slideshow
It’s not Explorer’s “Expand to Open Folder” option.
I had neither Accent Colour nor Image Show selected, when suddenly after editing photos for some time, this began today. I started Windows with 3.1, and I know this kind of problem has been around a long long time. Another bug in Windows/File Explorer has been the propensity to out of the blue duplicate highlighted image files. Bah humbug!
None of these “fixes” work for me either. This pretty much makes Windows technically “inoperable” – trying to select multiple files from various points in a list of files is futile.
MICROSOFT – PLEASE FIX!!!!
Every Windows update/infection I “encounter”, I think more and more of moving to a Unix OS.
For me, the cause of the Windows 10 File Explorer jumping to the top was Spotify. I deleted the Spotify application and it stopped. Hurray!
Sorry. My fix was temporary. I uninstalled Spotify and Windows 10 File Explorer worked properly for the remainder of the evening. When I restarted the PC today, the problem was back. Nice while it lasted.
That’s not the fix. I never had Background Slideshow activated, and the issue remained after the latest Win 10 update.
None of these “fixes” or “workarounds” do any good. I can have a list of files that take up more than the entire explorer window, select a few files at the top of the list, scroll down (either using mouse wheel, arrow keys, scroll bar,etc.) and try to select a few more files I want to copy/move, and in the middle of selecting a file, the list jumps back to top, and if you have your shift key in, you’ve selected a LOT of files that you don’t need.
PLEASE MICROSOFT!!!! FIX THIS!!!!!
It sounds like there are several different, even if somewhat similar problems… in my case, after recent updates, the file explorer window on the left simply starts scrolling down as long as the cursor is “on” the window. If you move it to the right the scrolling will stop but you still can’t select a file because the second you move the cursor back onto the FE window, it begins scrolling again, and it’s nigh on impossible to select anything accurately. This bug also affects certain programs which have wide horizontal or tall vertical index tables… it will simply start scrolling across or down them…..
What with not being particularly computer savvy I have been going nuts trying to solve this myself for a couple of years now and after reinstalling the OS half a dozen times in as many months I was beginning to believe this problem was something I myself was essentially failing to do correctly every time I reinstalled and reconfigured the pc Settings and now all thanks to you Sir it is finally solved and hooray, hooray, hooray because it’s NOT my fault.
Now my pc reboots faster by about 2 minutes, all programs load and run faster as well as performing better.
There’s no more constant buffering for 5 to 10 seconds or more and waiting for a right-click context menu to pop up in order to delete a file or folder and no more having to close down everything else, even music players, just to allow one program to have all the16Gb memory to itself and then still act as if it is towing a Panzer tank around the screen.
And the cursor works properly again, it doesn’t start skipping off on a joy ride from one side of the display to the other and back again without me being able to control it with the mouse.
And finally, I don’t have to name a folder by typing the chosen name in Notepad or Wordpad, copying it and then using CTRL+V as fast as possible otherwise the rename field would close within a second or two and I’d have to maybe attempt it 4 or 5 times or end up with loads of data and programs all in folders named “New Folder”
For me, it was a bonus to be able to have the colours changing on the folder title bars etc, and of course, every time I had to reconfigure the Settings it was one of the first things I would check the boxes on.
Why on Earth would Microsoft just NOT do everything possible to solve this, especially since it has been a major, major problem for so many people for so long?
I only purchased my first pc 4 years ago with no pc knowledge whatsoever as my life had been all physical labour up until then and with no time at all for all this modern tech rubbish.
However, I was advised it definitely would keep my mind active and I certainly needed to do something to keep me alive and kicking once I had been pensioned off.
Since then it has truly been a real eye-opener for me in that all of my life I was taught to be totally self-reliant and only rely upon my own life skills and experience.
It’s only now that I’ve started exploring the online help forums and tech fixes like yours that I realise what a bonus to our lives and to the world people like yourself are who freely give away your hard-earned knowledge like this when people like myself are finally willing to accept that we do need to do more than just rely on our own limited knowledge and brainpower.
To finally realise and accept that all we have to do is just turn up and read your clear and concisely worded answers and solutions is very empowering and liberating!
I am nearly 70 and I would like to thank you very sincerely for making an old man happy that he is at least still capable of learning new skills from wonderful technologically experienced and digitally capable people such as yourself.
Yours respectfully and sincerely
Starlight
I did all this – no change at all. The problem has remained for a very long time.
The jumping, changing focus, etc. has been happening for years across different versions of Windows and different PCs. This issue presents itself to me when two or more instances of File Explorers are open and working (copy, move, whatever). An instance of File Explorer not being used, just open will jump all over the place. All of the supposed fixes through the years are at best are workarounds. These little “fixes” are not fixes. Something is wrong here. I’m thinking about an action for all the time, grief and lost files I have encountered. Want to join me?
Does not work at all. Hope lost…
I had this problem on my laptop. Also from time to time the number 9 would self type until I could stop it using backspace. At the same time I found myself having to hit enter to load windows. I tried all sorts to fix it without success. However, I found hitting one of the F keys would enable me to select menus and stopped the jumping. It was not until the number 3 key came loose on the keyboard that I decided to replace the keyboard. I sourced a replacement keyboard, fitted it myself following a tutorial and Hey Presto everything was cured. So if you have this problem try replacing the keyboard it may just fix it. Best of luck.
This may be a fix, but these components are not the problem directly. Though that combo apparently trips the issue.
I have a static image and never had auto background accent enabled. The only thing that works is as I’m scrolling down I select, not just open, actually select a top-level folder. Then I open it and so on as I drill down.
Agree with Bill here – the color/auto highlight/slide show isn’t really the cause, as it continues to give me headaches on my development machine. None of these things are enabled on this computer.
Seems to randomly move the tree view – usually at the worst possible moment.
The real question is why hasn’t M$ fixed this after so many years?
still the prob in mid of 2022.
Thanks! Your solution works. But, now I can’t use a background slideshow. Microsoft should be able to fix this. Shame on them.
One year later, back on this forum, exact same issue – none of these “workarounds” help or even makes Windows file explorer behave differently at all for me. This pretty much renders Windows useless to function as a file browser in this state. Seems to have gotten worse after this latest update.
Same. Suffering from same issue. looking for a fix. Hopefully next windows update will sove this problem
I too have just started suffering with this issue, the left folder panel in explorer keeps scrolling up one line at a time back to the top. the files panel is perfectly fine, (though if I scroll that panel to the right, is scrolls back to the left!!!
Some websites also do not let me scroll down as they automatically scroll back up!
But not all, so it is not a generic scroll up even that is being called otherwise it would do it everywhere!
Also, the scrolling only occurs when the mouse has entered and is inside the folder panel, as soon as I move it out of that panel, the scrolling stops.
I have tried different mice, wired and wireless one, but still no luck in sorting this.
The background colour options mentioned earlier have no effect whatsoever on this bug.
This is making my file management tasks very cumbersome.
Hello,
For all those who have this problem and do NOT have the slideshow background set. I fixed mine by uninstalling the mouse driver(s), taking out the usb dongle and then reinserting it.
This was a little tricky because the scrolling issue prevented me from mouse-clicking on the driver in the Device Manager, but I managed to get around it by clicking Ctrl +up/down to hold things still and then right clicking the driver to uninstall.
Hope this helps other people!
The comment above by user Emma… You are a life saver, that actually worked for me!
I’ve had this happen to me, too. I tried everything. Nothing worked. Then, by accident, I discovered that if the problem was happening and I ran CCleaner to clean up, the problem stopped. If it started happening again, and I ran CCleaner again, the problem would go away again. This works for me, and I hope it works for you, too. Also, I only use the “free” version of CCleaner.