There's unfortunately no way to recover the already lost quick access links, but this method should refresh everything from issue happening again going forward

Quick Access in Windows 10 Is Not Working

  1. Acquiring recently used/opened files/folders through Quick Access - the new function in Windows 10 File Explorer navigation pane - is convenient. Do you enjoy it? I guess those people, who are fond of this feature, will be pissed off when discovering Windows 10 Quick Access is broken or not working. Taking that into account, I feel obliged to help you out of your misery. Please do the following to show recently used files in Quick Access when it's not working. 
  • Disable Quick Access
  • Open the "File Explorer" in Windows 10.
  • Select the "View" tab in ribbon interface.
  • Move the cursor to "Options" and then click on it.
  • Choose "Change folder and search options" from the pull-down menu.


  • Make sure the "Quick access" is selected for "Open File Explorer to", instead of "This PC".
  • Find "Show recently used files in Quick access" and "Show frequently used folders in Quick access" option under "Privacy", and then uncheck them.
  • Click on the "OK" button to confirm the changes you've made to "Folder Options".


  • Enable Quick Access in Win 10 Again
    • You can follow the steps mentioned in disable Quick Access to enable this feature again.
    • Open "File Explorer" -> select "View" -> move to "Options" -> click on "Change folder and search options" -> check both "Show recently used files in Quick access" and "Show frequently used folders in Quick access" -> click on "OK" button.
    • After that, please go to see whether the Quick Access works normally or not now. If it works, congratulations! If it doesn't work (still broken), please do the following to try to fix:
    • Open the "File Explorer" in Windows 10.
    • Paste the folder paths given below to the address bar respectively.
      • "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations"
      • "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations"
    • Press "Enter" and select all the items displayed afterward.
    • Right-click on them and choose "Delete" to clear the items quickly.



    Restart the computer to see whether this works in solving the problem or not.

    After this, I would suggest backing up where the quick access data is technically stored in the case that this happens again:

    Copy the following Location AFTER the user has all of their quick access links set:

    %appdata%\microsoft\windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a

    You can then paste this file back in the quick access location and the quick links should come back and function as normal .


    ** Imported from Cherwell **