Somehow the settings of directories in the configuration of IMCE (7.x-1.7) is pointing to <root>/. which lets met start in the private_files directory but not in the (public) files directory.
I couldn't figure it out where to change this. I tried to set a path to the public files directory with <root>/.. but Drupal would not allow me.
The settings under Home>Administration>Configuration>Media is set to: Public file system path: sites/default/files Private file system patch: sites/default/files/private_files
Anybody having a clue ?