Microsoft Edge Downloads - Open File suddenly not working

[nikaso]

Today we started getting reports of the 'Open File' link in the Downloads pop-out of Microsoft Edge not working, sure enough everyone is getting the attached error.  Edge seems to be introducing \\?\ into the path and Windows doesn't like it, for example, the correct path to the file might be \\myschool.local\filestorage\staff\joe.bloggs\Downloads\SchoolCalendar.pdf .  This works fine if typed directly into File Explorer but when you use the Open file link in the Downloads window on Edge it appends \\?\ to the beginning so you get "Windows cannot find \\?\\\myschool.local\filestorage\staff\joe.bloggs\Downloads\SchoolCalendar.pdf"

 

Chrome works fine still, just seems to be Edge.  Affects all staff and students alike and a reset of Edge doesn't do anything.  I also tried manually specifying the Download location in a GPO but Edge still appends the extra \\?\

 

I'm wearing about three hats at the moment so if anyone has any ideas it might save me tearing what hair I have left out!

 

 

[tfox.business]

We encountered the same issue and have found a fix. Long story short, use the Edge download settings to change the download location to a mapped network drive. We use server network drives mapped to P: for each user. There are errors in API pathing when using server name addressing, but mapping it using the P: drive addressing worked perfectly for us!

The following is a breakdown from MS Copilot:

• The \\?\ prefix is a Windows internal path format
• Edge recently started injecting it incorrectly for downloaded files on network paths
• Windows fails to open those paths when invoked this way
• Files themselves are fine and accessible

• • Original (problematic for Edge right now):

    \\server\share\user\Downloads
    

    → Edge converts this to something like:

    \\?\UNC\server\share\...
    

    → “Open file” call fails

  • Your fix:

    Z:\Downloads
    

    → No UNC → no \\?\UNC conversion → Windows opens it normally

   

   

Edited June 8 by tfox.business
Better context, more realistic addressing examples

[Landon_B]

Our organization is being hit with this today as well.  I can duplicate it at will on our session hosts and they are running edge 149.0.4022.52 which came out last Thursday I believe.  It would have applied during the weekend reboots hence why we see the issue today at our organization.   They are running Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session.    My local pc is running windows 11 Enterprise and I have the exact same build of edge and cannot replicate the issue.  It appears that it started with this current update of edge but only on our multi-session version of windows from Azure.  

 

Due to some design constraints I don't have additional drive letters available at the moment that aren't already reserved to create a mapped drive to get around this.

[Steve21]

Its a bug in Chromium for the last few days (Guessing your Chrome is an older version currently), but it'll affect both versions Edge/Chrome:

Can't open downloaded file when Downloads folder is a UNC path (malformed \\?\ path on open) [519243472] - Chromium

 

There's a fix coming, but current workarounds attached in the above thread if you wanted to try them

Steve

[Sheridan]

Same issue here - just started recently but doesn't seem to affect all downloaded files (i.e .docx and xlsx fail but PDFs are working ok when clicked directly from the Open file link!)

 

 

[nikaso]

We can fix it by using setting the GPO to a mapped drive as stated above but for most of our users that's not possible so we have told staff and students to just navigate to the downloads folder using File Explorer as a workaround and await the fix from Google.

[Sheridan]

Version 149.0.4022.62 appearing on our desktops today seems to have fixed this

[msm1000]

All fixed here in Edge after the latest update.

[PSMcG]

Has this issue started again in the latest Edge update 150.0.4078.48. Before this version, a .jnlp file would open automatically from Edge or a downloaded excel file would open if you clicked on Open File to open it.

Now you must specifically Open the Downloads folder to open the file (applicable to .jnlp and .xls and .msg file types). Prior to this update, all was working OK in this respect since 149.0.4022.62