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
    2022-09-16T08:43:37+00:00

    This same thing just happened to me a few minutes ago, everything works correctly, but I don't even have Onedrive configured with any account, it seems as if someone was making a copy of my documents. It's possible?

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-09-16T21:43:43+00:00

    You've probably got folder backups enabled. You can use OneDrive to back up your Documents, Desktop and Pictures.

    In the system tray, right-click the OneDrive icon and click settings.

    Select the Backup tab.

    Select manage backups and add or remove whichever folders you're having the problem with.

    Hope this helps.

    I went there and the backups appear enabled. However it looks like there are exact same copies made under another One Drive on my pc. There's one that say I can't log in as an administrator and then there's another one that allows me to log in. I don't want to monkey around with that yet, I'm apt to lose everything. It's very confusing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-09-16T21:50:28+00:00

    This same thing just happened to me a few minutes ago, everything works correctly, but I don't even have Onedrive configured with any account, it seems as if someone was making a copy of my documents. It's possible?

    I was wondering the same thing because in another file or folder on my computer are the exact same copies. I don't want to start monkeying around with them. They might end up with brown suitcases too. This is too confusing for the average user that just wants to use the computer to keep files, pictures and videos in one place and not get into all the other stuff these techs do.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-09-20T11:16:07+00:00

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