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
    2023-08-22T20:05:21+00:00

    It just happend to me today... But not even I have OneDrive. I uninstalled it and deleted Edge soooo Idk.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-08-23T12:37:05+00:00

    I would like to know the purpose of this feature before I simply turn it off. Has anyone found an official explanation? The file box appeared on the Edge icon which I found odd after reading about the resolution related to files. Then it occurred to me perhaps I opened a file in the browser in lieu of the native application. TIA!

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-08-23T15:43:16+00:00

    I am not using ONEDRIVE. I have this what looks like a little brown bag in the bottom left of my desktop. Don't know where it came from and I can't get rid of it. It was not there when I shut down for vacation last week but today It appeared when I turned on the computer. Can you help me get rid of it???

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-09-15T02:11:21+00:00

    Didn't work. Still have the boxes on all my desktop icons.

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