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
    2022-07-13T19:50:11+00:00

    Hi, I'd noticed this weird looking brown box ( Not Weird but NEW for me) showed up today 7/13/2022 around 12:30 while I was working first thought RANSOMEWARE but all of my files opened normally not issues at all the I serach and came to this notes and thank to Kevin B. notes I'd signed out of OneDrive and all brown boxes disapeared then signed in again and BINGO all went to normal again. Thank you Kevin B.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-13T20:00:48+00:00

    Thanks. I'll give it a try.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-13T21:07:19+00:00

    They are all ok in my One Drive folder. It's just when you click on windows explorer and open it. Then click on quick access. That's where everything has a brown briefcase. But I'm pretty sure they are the same ones in my one drive. I'm apt to lose everything in my One Drive if I sign out.

    Thanks anyway.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-24T02:49:00+00:00

    Hi, Unfortunately, the routing that you provided doesn't work that way on my computer (Settings>system>one drive>network). I can never find the "network" tab. Any further advice? Thanks.

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