My Documents Folder Does Not Open When You Double-click the My Documents Icon

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Symptoms

When you double-click or right-click the My Documents icon on the desktop, you may experience one or more of the following behaviors:

The My Documents folder does not open and no error message is displayed.
You receive any of the following error messages:
- Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permission to access the item.
- The share name was not found. Be sure you typed it correctly.
- The location you requested is not allowed as a target. Please choose a new location.

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Cause

This behavior can occur if the My Documents folder has been redirected to a network share that has become unavailable.

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Resolution

To resolve this issue, verify that the network share is available, and then reestablish the connection to the share.

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Workaround

To work around this issue, redirect the My Documents folder to a local drive until the network share becomes available. However, if the shortcut is redirected to a local drive, then files stored on the network share are unavailable.

To redirect the My Documents folder to a local drive, follow these steps:

Right-click the My Documents icon and then click Properties.
On the Sharing tab, change the location from the network share to a local folder, and then click OK.

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