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
    2024-10-11T13:01:32+00:00

    After years of ongoing uncertainty, it is time for Microsoft to provide a clear explanation regarding the brown icon overlay boxes in Windows Explorer.

    It remains unclear how these brown box icon overlays differ from the standard OneDrive cloud icon and, more importantly, how they can be removed.

    The brown overlays are not only visually disruptive but also impede essential functions, such as displaying file thumbnails and previews in Windows Explorer and other programs. A definitive response is urgently needed.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-09-03T08:55:05+00:00

    I had the same issue even tho, I don't have onedrive installed, you need to desactivate the archive on your app settings

    Go to Settings > apps > archive applications ( desactivate it ) !! and that's it.

    issue : https://i.imgur.com/Cks9NMI.png

    solution : https://i.imgur.com/P2m0QpB.png

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-01T23:46:23+00:00

    I could not open any picture or file with a brown box when I was online. The computer repair store here couldn’t either. The files aren’t available on Dropbox. I currently have uninstalled one drive since repair store said they thought one drive and Dropbox were incompatible and kept stealing things back and forth until these boxes appear and nothing can be opened. The repair store recovered some of my pictures but only about 10% of them

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