THIS ELEMENT IS NO LONGER LOCATED: WHAT IT MEANS AND SOLUTION - DOUBTS - 2025

The message that appears when an item is no longer located, is an error that means the absence of a location or path. Therefore, when you try to access the information of that element, it immediately shows you the error message. This is a fairly common problem among many users.

This situation usually happens when you are deleting a file (images, documents, installers, among others), and for some reason you interrupt this process (the power went out or your computer restarted). This will leave you with a kind of empty file or folder, in which no action can be performed.

When "This element is no longer located" appears, it means that you have probably performed an action (intentional or not) that affected the path of that folder or file, and now you will not be able to access what is inside it (if it is still something remains), nor can you remove it conventionally.

However, to solve this problem there are several methods that are effective to eliminate that folder (file) that is corrupt in your Operating System, but for this it is necessary to know that this file will remain as a kind of "direct access", which will not have no weight for the system (in most cases 0 Mb).

How to solve it?

It is not a general rule that files are empty, in some cases it happens because files or folders have changed location, and when you try to access them they have lost their location. To fix this you must reset the location of a file.

Reset a file location

When you try to access them, the message "This item is no longer located in (here goes the location where it was before)". Therefore, you must copy the real address and change it. Here we will show you how to reset a file's location:

First you will locate the shortcut that has the wrong location, and you will click with the right button. It will show you a menu in which you will select "Properties".

When selecting "Properties", the advanced menu will appear with different options. In this you will look for the following: "Destination:". There you can see the assumed location of where that shortcut is going to go.

It also happens that, when you open the shortcut, another file is automatically opened that is not the desired one (you can apply the same process to see the destination).

You will have to open Windows Explorer, you can do it by clicking directly on "My Computer" or you can also use the keyboard shortcut "Windows + E".

You will automatically see Windows Explorer appear on the screen. Here you must search among all your folders where the file that lost the location is located. Once you find it, copy the location by clicking on the bar, selecting all the text and copying it (right click, select copy or use the shortcut "Ctrl + C").

Then you open the "Properties" menu again. You must click on the "Destination:" bar and delete everything in it to copy what you have on the clipboard (the real location). Click "Apply" (for the changes to take effect) and finish by clicking "OK."

Ready! Your file should run / open correctly.

Delete the file that shows the message "This item is no longer located…"

Usually when you try to remove that annoying icon / folder / file that is left there, you find that you cannot delete it or make changes to it, as it will display the "Retry" message every time. Therefore, you will have to use a tool to be able to eliminate it permanently.

WinRAR

WinRAR is a software (application / tool) that is generally downloaded for free on most computers. This tool is robust (more than WinZip, which Windows brings by default); Its function is to compress data safely and without loss, but this software can be used for another purpose.

Open the WinRAR tool, right click and select the option "Run as administrator".

You will see a window similar to this one (with the files from your computer).

Now you have to find the folder or file that you cannot delete. You can do it in two ways:

-Using the arrow at the top left (to move between folders).

-Through the bullet that is in the upper right part (to move between folders).

After locating the folder with the error "This item is not located…", you must right click and select "Delete files."

A dialog box will open in which you will select “Yes”.

Ready! The folder will be removed from your computer.

Unlocker

Unlocker is a software that aims to delete files that, in one way or another, cannot be deleted, either because the file has an error or because you may need special permissions to perform this task. This tool is not installed by default in any Windows, but it is free to download.

When you download it, pay close attention to what you accept, as these free tools always come with other programs that you may not want to download.

Open the tool by right-clicking and then selecting "Run as administrator." You will see a window where you must select the folder to delete. Right click on it and look for the "Unlocker" option. Then a menu like this will appear:

1- You must choose the folder (if there are files in this as in the image above, select them as well).

2- Choose what action to take. As you need to delete it, look for the option "Delete" (in Spanish, delete / delete).

3- Click on “Unlock All” (in Spanish, “Unblock All”).

Once you have followed these steps, a dialog will appear with the message: "The object was deleted." (in Spanish, “The object has been eliminated”). Click on "OK"; at this point the folder was deleted.

References

1. Microsoft technical support (last update: April, 2018). "Invalid destination folder path" Error message extracting compressed file on a computer running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Retrieved from: support.microsoft.com
2. WinRAR (2018). Taken from: winrar.es.
3. WinRAR Team (2018). How to recover a damaged file. Consulted of: winrar.es.
4. Microsoft Community (2018). "Could not find this item" Popup when creating, modifying or deleting files and folders in W7. Retrieved from answers.microsoft.com.
5. Unlocker (no date). Taken from: unlocker.uptodown.com.
6. Steve Sturges (2010). Folder Delete Error No longer located in. Recovered from answers.microsoft.com.