Hello
Arduino IDE has worked fine for a long time and never had a problem with it but today it is impossible to open it. It stays on this screen indefinetly
I've looked into task manager and the more time I left it open it create more and more processes and background process.
I'm on windows 11 Familly version 23H2.
Uninstalling hasn't worked.
I've tried some thins from this forum IDE hangs on startup, here is the repeating message
2025-07-09T08:45:02.578Z daemon INFO Unable to get Documents Folder: The system cannot find the path specified.
2025-07-09T08:45:02.578Z daemon ERROR Error: Unable to get Documents Folder: The system cannot find the path specified.
at Socket.<anonymous> (C:\Users\alexi\AppData\Local\Programs\Arduino IDE\resources\app\lib\backend\main.js:2:5333869)
at Socket.emit (node:events:519:28)
at addChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:559:12)
at readableAddChunkPushByteMode (node:internal/streams/readable:510:3)
at Readable.push (node:internal/streams/readable:390:5)
at Pipe.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:191:23)
2025-07-09T08:45:02.579Z daemon INFO Starting daemon from C:\Users\alexi\AppData\Local\Programs\Arduino IDE\resources\app\lib\backend\resources\arduino-cli.exe...
2025-07-09T08:45:02.664Z daemon INFO time="2025-07-09T10:45:02+02:00" level=info msg="arduino-cli version 1.2.0"
time="2025-07-09T10:45:02+02:00" level=info msg="Using config file: c:\\Users\\alexi\\.arduinoIDE\\arduino-cli.yaml"
time="2025-07-09T10:45:02+02:00" level=info msg="Executing `arduino-cli daemon`"
Daemon is now listening on 127.0.0.1:20569
{"IP":"127.0.0.1","Port":"20569"}
Hi @alox_12. On startup, Arduino IDE queries the Windows operating system for the location of your user "Documents" folder. The reason Arduino IDE is not starting is because when it makes this query Windows responds that the "Documents" folder doesn't exist. Since that folder should always exist, the IDE fails to start with this "Unable to get Documents Folder: ..." error.
Traditionally, the default location of the "Documents" folder was a path with this format:
C:\Users\<username>\Documents
(where <username> is your Windows username)
Although that is the default, it is possible to customize the location of this folder. If the location was changed to a drive that is not accessible (e.g., a USB drive that is unplugged), that could cause the "Unable to get Documents Folder: ..." error.
(where the name of the Documents folder might actually be the localized equivalent)
It is also possible the folder could be located on alternative cloud storage providers (e.g., Dropbox.
When other users reported encountering this "Unable to get Documents Folder: ..." error, we often found that the problem was caused by them having disabled OneDrive in some manner, or else by them not having a connection to the OneDrive service.
Can you think of anything unusual about your system that might cause Arduino IDE to not be able to access your "Documents" folder?
Thanks for the fast response, I have uninstall OneDrive month ago but I've seen that there was still a folder name "OneDrive" in my user folder so I've deleted it. So this is the problem but how can I fixe this ?
Right click on the "Documents" folder.
A context menu will open.
Select "Properties" from the menu.
The "Documents Properties" dialog will open.
Select the "Location" tab in the "Documents Properties" dialog.
Click the "Restore Default" button.
Verify that the path shown in the field now has the following format:
C:\Users\<username>\Documents
(where <username> is your Windows username)
Click the "OK" button.
The "Documents Properties" dialog will close.
Now start Arduino IDE again. Hopefully this time it will start up completely and work as expected. If not, add a reply here on this forum topic to let us know and we'll try to find an alternative solution.
OK, then you can try to correct the "Documents" folder configuration via the Windows Registry.
I'll provide instructions you can follow to do that:
Be very careful when making changes to the Windows Registry as a mistake could put your system into a non-functional state.
It is recommended to create a backup before starting:
Close the non-functional Arduino IDE window if it is still open.
Click the "Start" icon on the Windows taskbar.
The "Start" menu will open.
Type registry editor in the search field of the "Start" menu.
Select "Registry Editor" from the search results.
A "User Account Control" dialog will open:
Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?
Click the "Yes" button in the "User Account Control" dialog.
The "Registry Editor" window will open.
Click on the address bar at the top of the "Registry Editor" window. ⓘ This is the field just under the menu bar. It might contain some text like Computer.
You will see a list of items in the panel on the right side of the "Registry Editor" window. Double click on the item with the name "Personal".
The "Edit String" dialog will open.
Type the following in the "Value data" field of the "Edit String" dialog:
%USERPROFILE%\Documents
Click the "OK" button.
The "Edit String" dialog will close.
Select File > Exit from the menus in the "Registry Editor" window.
Now try starting Arduino IDE again. It should now start up fully and be functional.
After fumbling around on this forum for more than a week with this same issue, I found this thread and it also fixed my same issue. After several years of using the IDE, all at once I had this issue. All created by that foolish OneDrive. I also had the issue of "no Location tab" in the "folder properties window". I had done everything I could find on these forums to kill Onedrive but nothing worked. However, when I followed your advice here and corrected the registry issue regarding the "User shell folders" the issue is resolved.
I sure hope this will help others with the same issue. It is very disgusting when you have been a long time user to discover that you are back at "square one".
Be very careful when making changes to the Windows Registry as a mistake could put your system into a non-functional state.