Opening or navigating to a folder from the Add Data dialog box takes a long time

Description

Folders containing many files may slow down the ArcMap Add Data browser.

Cause

Before adding data, the Add Data process must search through folders and subfolders to verify the data is geographic. The time this takes depends on the number of folders.

Solution or Workaround

• For all data: Drag and drop the data or layer from ArcCatalog into ArcMap.
• For file based data, such as shapefiles: Drag and drop data from Windows Explorer into ArcMap.
  
  

  Note:
  This does not work for feature classes of a geodatabase.