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
    2022-10-03T10:40:27+00:00

    Confirmed, this solved my problem in regard to Dropbox files.
    A few (in the root folder) still had the 'brown box' afterwards, but after toggling them (individually) there and back between 'online-only' and 'available offline' via the right-click menu, they are now back to normal too.

    Thanks Nemecky!

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-10-05T00:51:01+00:00

    Confirmed, this solved my problem in regard to Dropbox files.
    A few (in the root folder) still had the 'brown box' afterwards, but after toggling them (individually) there and back between 'online-only' and 'available offline' via the right-click menu, they are now back to normal too.

    Thanks Nemecky!

    I don't have an app called "Dropbox files". I have "One Drive files" and almost every Goddamned one of them are important files! One day I come to use my computer, minding my own business and I see all of this. Man, I hate OneDrive! At one time it was nice, but as usual Microsoft tries to add all these features to it because Google Drive has them and they end up messing it up. Then when I click on it I get errors that this file . I give up.

    This is what I have.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-10-19T02:28:37+00:00

    RE:"If the issue persists, go to settings > apps > apps and feature archive apps > turn off that feature and see if the box will disappear." they steps do notmatch Windows 10 {?}

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-10-19T02:35:43+00:00

    In My Windows 10 there is no "more details" {?}

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