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
    2023-01-24T18:44:22+00:00

    I am guessing all of the problems are users of One Drive cloud. I solved my issue by syncing my One Drive cloud. After syncing my "brown boxes" disappeared.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-25T06:51:17+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!

    Thanks. So I guess the box denotes OneDrive files? Still...annoying. Fixed now.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-01-28T03:38:08+00:00

    I have these issues as well. When I disconnected one drive it removed all of my photos and files. I had to reconnect one drive and try to get them back. I did get a lot of them but also lost a lot. I copied what I had to an external hard drive then uninstalled one drive. To my surprise within a week one drive had reinstalled itself and took control of all of my files again. Now I cannot access them. I'm at a loss and I also wonder what microsoft is using all of our personal files and photos for.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-01-28T03:50:31+00:00

    I think think they like taking my files and scrambling them then put them backs in different places. Geeks are still weird

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