When attempting to cut and paste a folder you receive the following error message:

Error: The Action Can’t Be Completed Because the Folder or a File in it is Open in Another Program

The following symptoms are noticed:

• This appears to happen more frequently when cutting and pasting folders on a Windows Server from a Mapped Drive
• It is happening frequently with multiple folders
• Restarting the computers or server doesn’t resolve the issue
• Closing any open programs, particularly Outlook (if it was used to save a file in to one of the folders) doesn’t work

Solution

This can be happening due to Windows caching thumbnails for the folders and files whilst you are trying to cut and paste the folder.  To see if this is the issue, try disabling folder and file thumbnails.

Windows 10

1. Open File explorer
2. Click on the View Tab
3. Click on the Options button (the Folder Options window will open)
4. Click on the View tab
5. Put a tick in the box under Advanced settings for Always show icons, never thumbnails
6. Try to cut and paste the folder in question again.

These instructions were created for Windows 10, accessing the folder options for other version of Windows may be slightly different