Fix scanning and results problems

When you finish, you have matched what you see to its cause and the step that fixes it. Each heading is a symptom as PoppyDisk shows it.

No Drive appears

The Drive Overview says No drives found. Plug in a drive or connect a network location. PoppyDisk found no storage it can scan.

1. Connect the Drive, or map the network location in Windows, then start PoppyDisk again.
2. Check what you expected to see. Optical discs, the EFI and recovery partitions, service and hidden volumes, and volumes without a letter are left out on purpose. See Scan a Drive.

If the overview instead shows an error with Try again, discovery itself failed, and the message is the reason Windows gave. Choose Try again. If it keeps failing, write to support@poppydisk.com with the message.

A Scan will not start

The Drive Overview shows Could not start the Scan with a reason.

1. Read the reason. It usually names the path.
2. Check that the Drive is still connected, or that the Pinned Folder still exists at that path. Drive not connected on a Pinned Folder's row means its Drive is absent.
3. Dismiss the message and choose Scan again.

Do not run PoppyDisk as administrator to get past this. The app is designed never to run elevated, and a start failure is not a permissions problem it would solve. See How administrator access works.

The Scan disappeared when I left the view

It did not stop. A Scan keeps running when you navigate away, and its row on the Drive Overview shows the live counters. Choose the row, or its Rescan button once it has finished, to reopen the result. See Scan a Drive.

The result says the Scan was cancelled or failed

The result view says The Scan was cancelled. or The Scan failed. with the reason, and shows no sizes as if they were complete.

1. Start a new Scan from the Drive Overview. A cancelled or failed Scan is never presented as a result, so there is nothing to salvage from it.
2. If a Scan fails at the same point twice, note the reason and the path it names and write to support@poppydisk.com.

A lot of space is Restricted or Unknown

The Details Panel shows Unknown Space with a large share, purple Restricted rows say Size unknown, and the result may carry the notice Restricted space is significant.

This is not an error. Windows kept those folders private from a program running without administrator rights, and the Scan carried on. To measure them, choose Measure in the notice, or Scan as administrator in the result, and approve the Windows prompt. Declining changes nothing. See Measure Restricted areas and What the sizes mean.

If the measurement reports Administrator access wasn’t granted. Nothing changed., the Windows prompt was declined or dismissed. Try again and approve it. If it reports The Elevated Rescan could not be completed. with a reason, note the reason and write to support@poppydisk.com.

In Demo Mode, administrator measurement is refused by design.

Sizes are marked Stale

A notice with a Stale badge says files changed under a folder and sizes stay unchanged until it is scanned again.

Choose Rescan changed folder, or Rescan whole Scan when PoppyDisk says too many changes were reported. Do not collect items from a Stale branch until you have. See Refresh Stale results.

If the Rescan reports The Rescan was cancelled. or The Rescan failed., the Stale marking stays. Run it again, or start a new Scan from the Drive Overview.

Search or filters show nothing

The Details Panel says No items match your term, or No items match the current filters.

1. Press Escape to clear the search, or choose Clear search.
2. Open Filters and set the kind back to Files and folders, the size to Any size, and the age to Any age.
3. If the item you expect is still absent, it may sit in a Restricted area or on a Stale branch. See the two symptoms above.

This folder is empty with no search or filter active means exactly that.

Part of the list did not load

The Details Panel shows Could not load more items. or Some Smaller Items could not be loaded. with Try again.

Choose Try again. The folders already shown are correct; only the page that failed is missing. If it fails repeatedly, start a new Scan.

A preview is unavailable

The Inspector says why in its preview area: Preview is available for files only, Preview unavailable because this item is Restricted, Preview skipped to avoid downloading this Cloud-only file, This file does not contain a supported preview, Preview unavailable because the file changed while it was read, Preview unavailable because the file could not be read, or No preview is available for this file type.

None of these needs fixing in PoppyDisk. Open the file itself with Open if you need to see it, and let your sync app download a Cloud-only file first if you want it locally; PoppyDisk will not download it for you. See Inspect one item.

If the Inspector reports The item could not be inspected with Try again, choose Try again; if it keeps failing, the item is probably gone or unreadable, and a Rescan will show which.

Open, Show in File Explorer, Properties, or a Windows Settings page does not work

PoppyDisk reports The action could not be completed, or the owner notice says Windows Settings could not be opened.

1. Retry once from the item.
2. Open the same thing yourself: the item in File Explorer, or Settings by name from the Start menu.
3. In Demo Mode these actions are disabled for synthetic items, and only Copy Path works. That is expected. See Take a tour in Demo Mode.

Still stuck

Write to support@poppydisk.com with what you did, the exact message PoppyDisk showed, and whether you were in Demo Mode. Nothing about your Drive's contents is needed.