What are these brown box icons in left bottom corner of my files??

Anonymous
2022-03-07T21:29:56+00:00

Does anyone know where these small brown box icons came from and what they mean?? I suddenly have these little brown icons (looks like a small file box) on most of my files, Word, pdf, photos, etc. I've googled the daylights out of this and apparently lots of folks have the same question but no one has an answer. I hasn't affected my ability to open files but it's really annoying! (see pic below) Does it have something to do with my upgrade to Windows 11?

Thanks!

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2022-04-23T00:35:08+00:00

Had this exact same issue today. The resolution was quick no reinstall. I'm on Win11, so perhaps that was a plus in this scenario. Here's the fix that worked for me:

  1. Open windows explorer <windows-key + e>
  2. If you're using OneDrive you should see something like "OneDrive - Personal" within the left-hand pane. If so, Right-Click to access the context-menu.
  3. You should see the menu-item: "Always keep on this device", select this.
  4. Recheck your desktop; no more brown boxes, yay!

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-03-15T20:16:43+00:00

    I have the same issue and I also uninstalled and re-installed and after a few weeks it all returned. what is that icon? what does it mean? this is a persistent and prevasive Issue that I see frequently in forums like this and no one seems to know what it is or how to fix it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-03-08T20:38:55+00:00

    Kevin, thanks so much for the reply but neither of those procedures changed anything. I logged out of One Drive (after I finally figured out how to do that), then shut down my laptop, turned it back on and no change. I went to archive apps but that feature was already off. I still have the same file box icon on all my folders, photos, etc.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-06-30T12:28:35+00:00

    I just right click desktop and click refresh and it's fixed.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-05-21T23:23:36+00:00

    I just had the same problem. I just opened OneDrive, closed it, and then refreshed the desktop.

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