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
    2023-03-27T04:35:07+00:00

    I found that when I tried to open One Drive, I had to sign in. When I did, the boxes were gone and I could access everything.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-30T17:22:05+00:00

    This worked! Thank you!

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-30T18:53:40+00:00

    At some point I replied to this thread and checked the "notify me" box. At this point this 12 page discussion is no longer interesting or even relevant. Since it is marked as Answered, can somebody please shut it down so I don't get notification of new posts any more? Or just tell me how to unsubscribe to this thread! I am NOT going to go hunting for my contribution among the 12 pages to see if I can do that there. This should be easier!

    David

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-30T19:08:18+00:00

    David, here is what I was able to find.

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