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
    2022-07-11T05:11:44+00:00

    There was no option but windows 11 on my new laptop. I agree that I have had a lot more problem since dealing with the windows 11 that I ever did with windows 10.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-01T02:21:56+00:00

    Please, take this with a grain of salt. As I am no expert.

    This seems to be an updated way of identifying which files are NOT stored on your device, but are LINKED to cloud (One drive) files. If you are not connected to the internet, these files will not open. If you connect to the internet and open the file it will load to your device until you un-sync it.

    You can sync all files, but if there are a lot it could take up significant space on your device. I typically un-sync files that I do not use regularly.

    Hope that helps.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-09-26T16:44:16+00:00

    I found a solution for anyone that this is happening to on Dropbox. If you right click on the Dropbox folder in windows explorer and click "make available offline" it will get rid of the brown box and the green check mark will return. Dropbox will then sync everything again and eventually the brown box will disappear. Granted I think this takes up more hard drive space but my HD is big enough to not worry about it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-11T02:13:26+00:00

    I only wish I would have never upgraded to Windows 11. That's exactly when I've been having problems with it.

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