Send To Menu Empty or Shows Only “Bluetooth Device”

When right-clicking a file and clicking the Send To menu in Windows, only the Bluetooth Device shortcut may be displayed, although the other shortcuts, including the default ones, such as Compressed (zipped) folder, Desktop (create shortcut), Mail Recipient, are intact in the user’s Send To folder.

send to menu shows only bluetooth device

On some systems, the Send To menu may be completely blank:

send to menu is completely empty

Let’s see how to fix these issues.

Solution

Case 1: Send To Menu shows only Bluetooth Device

The problem is caused by a file named Bluetooth, a 0-byte file of the type “Send To Bluetooth” which stalls the rendering of the Send To menu. Many users face this issue after upgrading to Windows 10. Perhaps the old Bluetooth software they installed or that came preinstalled with the computer doesn’t play well on Windows 10/11.

Deleting the 0-byte Bluetooth file fixes the problem. To do so, open your user profile’s Send To folder, which is located at %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo.

Simply type the above path in the address bar in File Explorer, or run the command shell:sendto from the Run (Win + R) dialog to open the Send To folder of your user account. (Ref: Shell Commands to access the special folders)



Delete the file named Bluetooth. (Don’t delete the shortcut Bluetooth device.)

The Send To menu should render correctly.


Case 2: Send To Menu is Completely Empty

If the Send To menu is fully blank, even though there are shortcuts in the “SendTo” folder of your user account, then you need to fix the SendTo shell folder path in the User Shell Folders registry key.

  1. Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
  2. Go to the following branch:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
  3. Double-click SendTo and set its value as follows:
    %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

    sendto user shell folders registry value
    Note: The value type for SendTo should be REG_EXPAND_SZ since we’re using an expandable variable as the data. If it reads REG_SZ, then delete the value and create a new value “SendTo” of type REG_EXPAND_SZ and set its data.

  4. Exit the Registry Editor.
  5. Log off and log back in for the change to take effect. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell.

I hope that fixes the Send To menu on your Windows computer.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

7 thoughts on “Send To Menu Empty or Shows Only “Bluetooth Device””

  1. Thanks for the advice. It actually worked on my pc. It’s been really frustrating to open two folders while transferring files to a USB stick but now its no more.

    Reply
  2. Did not work for me, the destination folder is still showing empty, but if I try to “sendto” again it asks me if I want to overwrite the existing file! even shows both files if I ask to compare….. so obviously the file is there, just invisible to windows explorer… and yes I have refreshed and even rebooted… when is windows 11 going to arrive ???

    Reply
  3. Just the fix I needed. I don’t use social media, so I can’t share your post, but I give you five stars. Ramesh makes the world a better place. Thanks
    Richard

    Reply
  4. Worked for me, thank so much! But I had to delete the file using the command prompt since it wouldn’t delete through the windows interface!

    cd \Users\[username]]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

    del Bluetooth.SendToBluetooth

    And Voila! My Sent To works again! Thank you!

    Reply

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