Libraries in Windows 11: Show, Use and Restore Them (Still There)

Libraries still exist in Windows 11; they are just hidden. To show them, open File Explorer, right-click an empty area of the left navigation pane, and choose Show libraries, or check Show libraries in Folder Options on the View tab. A library is a virtual folder that gathers several real folders into one view. Your Pictures library can show photos from your PC, an external drive and a network folder together. Add folders from the library's Properties. If a library is broken or missing, right-click Libraries and choose Restore default libraries. Deleting a library never deletes your files, but deleting files you see inside a library deletes the real files.

Ethan's mother keeps photos in three places: the Pictures folder on her laptop, an external drive full of older albums, and a folder on the family's network storage where Ethan's sister drops photos of the grandchildren. She was tired of opening three places to find one picture. Jake showed her a feature most people forgot existed: he turned on libraries, added all three folders to the Pictures library, and pinned it to Quick access. Now one click shows every photo, searches cover all three locations at once, and nothing was copied or moved. This page explains what libraries are, how to bring them back, and when they are still the best tool for the job.

Everything here works the same on Windows 10, where libraries have also been hidden by default since the Windows 8.1 era.

What a library is (and is not)

A library is a virtual collection of folders. It does not store files itself. Instead, it points to one or more real folders, which Windows calls the library's locations, and shows their contents together as if they were one folder. Open the Pictures library and you see the files of every folder in it; sort by date and photos from all locations interleave in one timeline; search and every location is searched at once.

Because a library only points to folders, adding a folder to a library copies nothing and takes no extra space, and removing a folder from a library leaves the folder and its files exactly where they were. The files themselves always live in their real folders. That is what makes libraries safe to experiment with, and also why it matters that deleting a file you see in a library deletes the real file.

A useful way to picture it: a library is like a playlist for folders. A playlist shows songs from many albums in one list without copying any song; delete the playlist and the songs remain, but delete a song from your collection and it is gone from every playlist too.

Where libraries came from and why they were hidden

Libraries arrived in Windows 7 in 2009 as a headline feature: Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos became libraries, each starting with your personal folder and the shared Public folder of the same name. The idea was that people with files scattered over several drives could see them together without reorganizing anything.

Many people found the extra layer confusing: there was a Documents library and a Documents folder, and it was not always clear which one you were looking at. With Windows 8.1, Microsoft hid libraries from the navigation pane by default and put the personal folders front and center, later adding OneDrive and Quick Access as the main ways to organize files. Libraries were never removed, though. They remain fully working in Windows 10 and Windows 11, ready for anyone who needs them. When this page was first written in 2016, the question was how to bring them back in Windows 10; the answer has barely changed since.

Today the same capability sits quietly in Windows 11, one right-click away, and it remains the only built-in way to make folders on different drives behave like one.

Show libraries in File Explorer

1. Open File Explorer with Windows + E.
2. Right-click an empty area of the left navigation pane, below the folders.
3. Select Show libraries. A Libraries entry appears in the pane.
4. Expand it to see Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos, plus Camera Roll and Saved Pictures if they exist on your PC.

Alternatively, open See more (…) > Options, go to the View tab, scroll to Navigation pane, and check Show libraries. You can also open libraries at any time without showing them in the pane: type shell:Libraries in the File Explorer address bar or the Run box and press Enter.

To hide them again, repeat the same step and uncheck the option. Hiding them changes only the navigation pane; any libraries you created stay intact.

On Windows 10, the same right-click on the navigation pane works, and the View tab of the ribbon has Navigation pane > Show libraries as another route.

Shell shortcuts for libraries

Windows has built-in shortcut names, called shell folders, that open libraries directly from the address bar, the Run box or a desktop shortcut, even when libraries are hidden: shell:Libraries for all libraries, shell:DocumentsLibrary, shell:PicturesLibrary, shell:MusicLibrary and shell:VideosLibrary for each default one. To make a desktop shortcut, right-click the desktop, choose New > Shortcut, and type explorer shell:PicturesLibrary as the location.

These shortcuts are handy for people who want to use a library without changing how the navigation pane looks for everyone else on the PC.

The same names work in scripts and in the Run box, so a family member can type shell:PicturesLibrary and land in the merged photo view without needing to know where any folder lives.

Pin such a shortcut to the taskbar by dragging it there, and the merged view is always one click away.

Add folders to a library

1. In the navigation pane, right-click the library, such as Pictures, and choose Properties.
2. Select Add, browse to the folder you want to include, and select Include folder.
3. Repeat for each folder, such as one on an external drive and one on a network share.
4. Select the folder that should receive new files and choose Set save location.
5. Select OK.

You can also right-click any folder in File Explorer, choose Show more options, then Include in library, and pick a library. That is the quickest way when you are already looking at the folder. Each library can hold up to 50 folder locations, far more than anyone usually needs.

Ethan's mother's Pictures library now has three locations: her own Pictures folder, which is the save location, the Albums folder on her external drive, and the family photos folder on the network storage.

When a library location is unavailable, for example a disconnected drive, the library still opens and shows everything else; the missing folder appears with a note that it is unavailable, and its files return as soon as the drive is reconnected.

Moving personal folders vs using libraries

Libraries are sometimes confused with moving your personal folders. You can move the real Documents, Pictures or other personal folders to another drive: right-click the folder, choose Properties, open the Location tab, select Move, pick a folder on the other drive, and confirm moving the files. That physically relocates the folder, usually to free space on a small system drive, and apps that save to Documents follow it automatically.

A library does something different: it leaves folders where they are and shows them together. If your goal is space, move the folder; if your goal is one view of folders in several places, use a library. Both can be combined, and the default libraries automatically follow a moved personal folder.

Libraries vs folder links (junctions)

Advanced users sometimes use directory junctions or symbolic links instead of libraries. Created with the mklink /J command in an administrator Command Prompt, a junction makes a folder on one drive appear inside a folder on another, so every program sees it as a normal subfolder. That is more transparent to apps than a library, which only File Explorer and dialogs understand.

The trade-off is risk: deleting through a link can delete real files, backups may follow or skip links unpredictably, and a mistake is harder to undo. For most people, libraries give the merged view safely. Junctions are best left to cases where a specific program must see files in one path.

If you are unsure which you need, start with a library. It can be removed in a second with no effect on your files, which makes it the safe first experiment.

What can and cannot be added

Most folders can join a library, but there are rules that trip people up:

• Folders on internal drives: always fine.
• Folders on external USB drives: fine on current Windows, but the library shows them only while the drive is connected.
• Network folders: must be indexed by the computer that shares them, or made available offline on your PC. If Windows says a network location cannot be included because it is not indexed, that is the reason.
• OneDrive folders: fine; files show their cloud status as usual.
• Removable media such as SD cards and DVDs: generally not supported as library locations.
• Another library: not possible; libraries contain folders, not other libraries.

Search is fastest for locations that are indexed. Local folders added to a library are added to the search index automatically, so searching the library is quick even across thousands of files.

Making network folders available offline

Windows' Offline Files feature keeps local copies of network folders and syncs them when the network is available, which also lets a non-indexed network folder join a library. Right-click the network folder in File Explorer, choose Show more options, then Always available offline. Manage it from Sync Center in Control Panel. Offline Files is included in Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise and Education, not Home.

On Home, the alternatives are to include only network folders that the sharing device indexes, to copy the folder to an external drive or OneDrive, or to use a sync tool provided by the storage device's maker. Many home network storage boxes include their own sync apps that keep a local copy, which can then join a library like any local folder.

Offline copies take space on your drive, so make only the folders you actually need available offline, especially on laptops with small SSDs.

External drives and changing drive letters

A folder on an external drive is remembered by its path, including the drive letter. If the drive gets a different letter next time, for example E: instead of D: because another device was plugged in first, the library cannot find the folder and shows it as unavailable. To prevent this, give the external drive a fixed letter: right-click Start, choose Disk Management, right-click the drive, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, and choose a letter late in the alphabet such as P or X, which other devices are unlikely to take.

Windows then uses that letter whenever the drive is connected, and the library finds its folder every time. This one change prevents most "my library lost the external drive" complaints.

The same fixed-letter trick helps backup software and any program that remembers paths on external drives, so it is worth doing for every external drive you use regularly.

Default and public save locations

When you save or copy a file into a library rather than into one of its folders, Windows has to decide where the file actually goes. That is the default save location, set in the library's Properties with Set save location. It is shown with a check mark next to the folder. Choose the folder on your main drive that you back up, rather than an external drive that may not be connected.

There is also a public save location, used when another user on the same PC saves into the library in a shared context, mainly relevant on PCs with several accounts sharing Public folders. Most people never need to change it. If files you save to a library seem to disappear, check the save location first: they are almost certainly in that folder.

Libraries in Open and Save dialogs

When libraries are shown, they also appear in the left pane of most Open and Save As dialogs, so you can open a file from anywhere in a library without remembering which drive it lives on. Saving into a library from a dialog puts the file in the default save location, the same rule as in File Explorer. This is where libraries quietly save the most time: in a photo editor's Open dialog, the Pictures library shows every location at once, so you pick the photo directly instead of navigating through drives.

If libraries are hidden in File Explorer, they are hidden in dialogs too, which is one more reason to turn them on once you rely on them.

Public folders and shared PCs

Every Windows PC has Public folders in C:\Users\Public, such as Public Documents and Public Pictures, which every account on the PC can read and write. In Windows 7, each default library included the matching Public folder alongside your personal one, which is how families shared photos on one PC. Newer versions do not always include them by default, but you can add them to any library from its Properties.

On a family PC, adding Public Pictures to everyone's Pictures library gives each person their own photos plus a shared family set in one view, without anyone having access to anyone else's personal folder.

Remember that anything in Public folders is readable by every account on the PC, so keep private documents in personal folders.

Optimize a library for its file type

Each library can be optimized for a type of content, which changes the columns and arrangement options File Explorer offers. In the library's Properties, use Optimize this library for and choose General items, Documents, Pictures, Music or Videos. A Pictures-optimized library offers arrangements by date taken and tags; a Music library by album, artist and genre; a Documents library by author and type.

To use arrangements, open the library and, in Details view, right-click an empty area to see Arrange by options where available, or use Sort and Group by on the command bar. Grouping a Pictures library by month taken is a simple way to browse years of photos from several locations as one timeline.

Working with very large libraries

Libraries with tens of thousands of files, such as a lifetime of photos, open fastest in a view without large thumbnails. Use Details or List view for browsing and switch to Large icons only for the folder you are looking at. Grouping by month or year breaks the list into manageable sections, and search with filters such as a date range is faster than scrolling. Make sure the locations are indexed, so sorting and searching use the index rather than reading every file.

If a library feels slow even so, check whether one location is a network folder on a slow connection; removing it from the library, or making it available offline on Pro editions, usually restores speed.

For photos in particular, thumbnails are cached after the first view, so a large library that feels slow the first time usually speeds up on later visits.

Create your own library

1. Show libraries in the navigation pane, then select Libraries.
2. Right-click an empty area of the right pane and choose New > Library.
3. Name it, for example Projects or Family Recipes.
4. Open the new library and select Include a folder, then add its first folder.
5. Add more folders from its Properties, and set the save location.

Custom libraries suit any topic spread over several places: a work project with files on your laptop and a shared drive, a hobby with folders on two disks, or school work split between a laptop and OneDrive. Pin the library to Quick access, by right-clicking it and choosing Pin to Quick access, so it is one click away on Home.

Give custom libraries clear, short names; they appear in dialogs and the navigation pane, where long names get cut off.

Library ideas that work well

• All Photos: Pictures, an external archive drive and a shared family folder.
• Work Projects: a local working folder plus the team's shared drive.
• School: a laptop folder and the school's OneDrive folder for each subject.
• Tax and Bills: scanned documents folder, downloaded statements and an archive drive.
• Music: a local music folder and a large collection on network storage.
• Videos: phone video imports and an external drive of older home movies.

The common thread is files of one kind or one purpose living in more than one place. If that describes how your files are stored, a library will save time every day.

A simple plan for a family PC

For a family sharing one PC, a light-touch setup works well. Each person keeps their own files in their own personal folders. A shared family folder for photos and one for documents live in Public Pictures and Public Documents, or on network storage. Show libraries, and add the shared folders to everyone's Pictures and Documents libraries. Each person then sees their own files plus the family's in one place, while personal folders stay private to each account. Pin the libraries to Quick access in every account, and the arrangement needs no further attention.

Children's accounts can use the same arrangement, with the shared folders added to their libraries, while their own files stay in their personal folders where parents' Family Safety settings still apply.

Restore default libraries

If a default library is missing, shows the wrong folders, or opens with an error such as "Documents.library-ms is no longer working", restore it:

1. Show libraries in the navigation pane.
2. Right-click Libraries itself, not a single library.
3. Choose Restore default libraries.

Windows recreates Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos with their default locations. Your files are not touched. Custom folders you had added to the default libraries need adding again afterwards. If the restore option does not fix an error, delete the broken library itself, which does not delete files, and then restore defaults again so Windows creates a fresh one.

Restoring defaults is also the first thing to try if File Explorer shows errors when you select a library, or if a library opens to an empty view even though its folders contain files.

How Jake set up the photo library

1. Turned on Show libraries in the navigation pane.
2. Gave the external photo drive a fixed drive letter, P, in Disk Management.
3. Added the drive's Albums folder to the Pictures library.
4. Made the network family photos folder available offline, which her laptop's Windows 11 Pro supports, so it could join the library.
5. Kept her own Pictures folder as the default save location.
6. Optimized the library for Pictures and grouped it by month taken.
7. Pinned the Pictures library to Quick access.

The setup took about fifteen minutes, and it has not needed touching since, apart from plugging in the external drive when she wants her older albums.

When the external drive is not connected, the library simply shows her local and network photos, and the older albums reappear the moment the drive is plugged in.

Back up your library setup

If you create several custom libraries, back up their definitions: copy the .library-ms files from %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries to a safe place. After a Windows reset or on a new PC, copy them back, check that the folder paths and drive letters match, and the libraries reappear exactly as before. It takes a minute and saves rebuilding each one by hand.

Store the copies alongside your regular backup, for example in a Settings folder on OneDrive or on the backup drive, and include a short note listing each library's folders. If the paths differ on the new PC, open the library's Properties, remove the missing locations and add the new ones; the library's name, icon and type are kept.

Where library definitions are stored

Each library is a small file with a .library-ms extension, stored in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries. The file lists the library's folders, save location and type. Type that path in the File Explorer address bar to see them. These files are why libraries survive hiding and showing, and why a damaged library can be fixed by deleting its file and restoring defaults.

You can copy a .library-ms file to another PC or user account to share a library setup, though the folder paths inside must exist there too. IT administrators sometimes deploy libraries this way, pointing everyone's Projects library at the same shared folders.

For IT: libraries in managed environments

Organizations can give users consistent libraries by deploying .library-ms files, for example with Group Policy Preferences copying a prepared file into each user's Libraries folder, pointing at the right shared folders. Libraries work well with folder redirection and with OneDrive's Known Folder Move, since the default libraries follow the personal folders wherever they are redirected. Administrators can also hide libraries or specific default libraries for users who should work only in redirected folders.

For shared departmental files, a custom library pointing at several team shares gives users one place to browse and search, without mapping a drive letter for each share.

Search connectors, small .searchConnector-ms files, can also add remote search locations, such as a document management system that supports them, into the navigation pane alongside libraries, giving users one search box for local and remote content.

Rename, change the icon or hide one library

Each library's Properties dialog has a few personal touches. Rename a library like any folder, with F2. Select Change library icon to pick a different icon, which helps when you have several custom libraries. Uncheck Shown in navigation pane to keep a library but hide it from the left pane, useful for a library you open only through a shortcut or Quick access.

These settings live in the library's .library-ms file, so they travel with it if you copy the file to another account.

Renaming a default library, such as calling Pictures "All Photos", is purely cosmetic; it still points at the same folders and still opens with shell:PicturesLibrary.

Custom icons are especially helpful for people who rely on visual cues, such as younger children or older relatives, who can learn to look for a camera icon for photos and a music note for songs.

Camera Roll and Saved Pictures

Many Windows 10 and 11 PCs show two extra libraries, Camera Roll and Saved Pictures. They were created by the Camera and Photos apps, which save photos taken with the PC's camera into Camera Roll and pictures saved from some apps into Saved Pictures, both inside your Pictures folder. They are ordinary libraries: you can add folders to them, hide them, or delete them if you never use them, and the folders and photos stay safe in Pictures.

If they clutter the navigation pane and you never use the PC's camera, uncheck Shown in navigation pane for each rather than deleting them, in case an app expects them later.

Photos the Camera app takes keep landing in Camera Roll whether or not the library is shown, so hiding it never loses new pictures.

Libraries and OneDrive

If you use OneDrive's folder backup, your Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders are moved into OneDrive, and the Documents and Pictures libraries follow them automatically, since the library points to the personal folder wherever it is. Your library keeps working, now showing the OneDrive copy. Files stored only online appear with a cloud icon and download when you open them.

You can also add other OneDrive folders to a library, such as a shared family album, so they appear alongside local folders. Our guide to finding and opening OneDrive covers checking that folder backup and sync are working.

If you use OneDrive on several PCs, set up the same libraries on each, pointing at the same OneDrive folders, and every PC gives the same merged view of your synced files.

Sharing a library with others

A library cannot be shared over the network the way a folder can, because it is only a view on your PC. To give someone else the same content, share the underlying folders, or share a OneDrive folder that is part of the library. Other people can then build their own library pointing at the same shared folders, so everyone sees one merged view on their own PC. Copying your .library-ms file to them works too, if the folder paths match on their PC.

On a home network, the simplest pattern is one shared folder per kind of content on the network storage, added to each family member's matching library.

That way each person's library stays personal, with their own extra folders if they like, while the shared content is the same for everyone.

Searching across a library

One of the best reasons to use a library is search. Type in the search box while a library is open, and Windows searches every folder in it at once, using the index for local folders so results appear quickly. Filters work too: in a Pictures library, datetaken:last year or kind:picture narrows results across all locations. If searches miss files you know are there, the locations may not be indexed; our guide to rebuilding the search index explains how to add folders and fix it.

For network locations, searches depend on the indexing of the computer or storage device that shares the folder, which is why Windows insists that network folders be indexed before they can join a library.

Search results inside a library also show which folder each file came from, in the Folder column of Details view, so you always know where a found file really lives.

Libraries and backups

On Windows 10, File History backs up the folders in your libraries by default, along with Desktop, Contacts and Favorites, which made libraries a convenient way to choose what was backed up: add a folder to a library and File History started protecting it. File History still exists in Windows 11 through Control Panel; our guide to turning on File History covers setting it up and adding folders.

Remember that a library is not a backup. Seeing a photo in both the Pictures library and its original folder does not mean there are two copies; there is one file. For real protection, back up to an external drive or the cloud; our guide to backing up files to an external drive shows the built-in options.

A practical rule: every location in a library should be covered by some backup, whether File History, a cloud service or the network storage device's own backup. A library that merges a backed-up folder with an unprotected external drive gives a false sense of safety.

Libraries and apps

Some apps use your libraries or the personal folders behind them. Older media programs such as Windows Media Player Legacy build their collections from the Music, Pictures and Videos libraries, so adding a folder to the Music library adds its songs to the player. Modern apps, including the new Media Player and Photos, generally manage their own folder lists in their settings, often starting from the same personal folders. If an app does not show files from a folder you added to a library, look in that app's settings for a folders or library option and add it there too.

When choosing which app opens your music or photos by default, see our guides to changing the default music player and changing the default Photos app.

Backup and sync tools from other companies sometimes offer to protect "libraries"; check whether they mean Windows libraries or simply the personal folders, since a custom library's extra locations may not be included automatically.

When to use libraries, and when not to

Libraries are worth turning on when your files of one kind are spread across several drives or devices and you want to see them together: photos on an internal drive, an external drive and a network share; documents split between a laptop folder and a shared work drive; music collections on two disks. They are also handy for project folders scattered around a PC.

If all your files live in your personal folders or in OneDrive, libraries add little; Quick access pins and Home's Favorites do the same job more simply. And if you find the extra layer confusing, as many Windows 7 users did, there is no harm in leaving them hidden. They are a tool, not a requirement.

A quick test: if you have ever copied the same photos to two drives just to see them together, a library would have done it without the copy.

Libraries vs Quick access, Favorites and Gallery

Only libraries merge folder contents while still behaving like a folder you can browse, sort and save into. Quick access only takes you to a folder; Gallery shows photos but is not for documents; Favorites holds individual files. They work well together: Ethan's mother has her Pictures library pinned to Quick access, so Home takes her straight to the merged view.

For photos specifically, Gallery is the better browsing experience, with its timeline and large previews, while the Pictures library is better for managing files: renaming, moving, sorting by any column, and saving edits back to the right place. Many people use both: Gallery to look, the library to organize.

Library problems and fixes

• "Library is no longer working": delete the broken library and use Restore default libraries.
• Folder will not add: network folders must be indexed or available offline; removable media is not supported.
• Files saved to the library went missing: check the default save location in Properties.
• External drive folder disappeared from view: the drive is disconnected or has a new drive letter; reconnect it or re-add the folder.
• Search misses files: rebuild or extend the search index.
• Libraries option missing from the pane menu: use Folder Options > View > Show libraries, or open shell:Libraries.

Common misconceptions

• "Libraries were removed in Windows 11." They are hidden, not removed.
• "A library makes a copy of my files." It only shows them.
• "Removing a folder from a library deletes it." The folder is untouched.
• "Libraries back up my files." They do not; File History or another backup does.
• "Libraries slow down my PC." Indexing their folders uses a little background time once, then very little.

Most of the confusion around libraries comes from the first two beliefs; once people see that a library is only a view, they tend to find it simple and useful.

Libraries on Windows 10

Windows 10 handles libraries exactly as Windows 11 does: hidden by default, shown from the navigation pane or Folder Options, managed through Properties, and restored with Restore default libraries. The ribbon makes a few options easier to find, with a Manage tab appearing when a library is selected that holds Manage library, Set save location, Optimize library for and Show in navigation pane. Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025, so if you are setting up libraries on a PC you plan to keep, it is worth upgrading to Windows 11 first if the hardware allows; the libraries carry over during an in-place upgrade.

The .library-ms files are the same format on both versions, so a library backed up from Windows 10 can be restored on Windows 11.

Windows libraries: frequently asked questions

Ethan's mother now opens one Pictures library instead of three folders, and searching for "beach" finds photos from her laptop, her old albums and the grandchildren's folder at once. Nothing about where her photos live changed. Libraries are one of those Windows features that went out of fashion without going away, and for anyone with files spread across drives, they are still the neatest answer.

Revision note. Written October 2, 2026, rewriting our 2016 tip on showing hidden libraries into a complete guide to libraries in Windows 11 and 10. May every file you need be in one view.