OneDrive files suddenly have a brown box icon on the lower left-hand corner. What does this mean?

Anonymous
2021-10-25T10:24:49+00:00

I use OneDrive's File-on-demand feature.

Somehow out of nowhere, my online-only files (files marked with cloud icon) in my OneDrive folder are marked with this brown box symbol in the lower left-hand corner of each file icons. What does this icon mean?

Many options in the right-click menu are also missing from all files in the OneDrive folder (both with and without brown box icon), notably the option to control OneDrive file-on-demand like "Free up space" and "Always keep file on this device".

The "Status" column that shows the file-on-demand icons like Cloud & green checkmark in Details view is also missing.

I have just encountered this today for the first time. What does this icon brown box icon mean? I've tried searching and can't find any explanation.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For education | Windows

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Anonymous
2021-12-10T19:36:54+00:00

Hi,

I am not sure if everyone has this app, but I had the One Drive App, pre-installed for my new windows 11 device. On the app, just hit sync. Doing this resolved the brown box icon issue for me.

Hope this helps,

Cheers

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Anonymous
2021-12-08T19:12:16+00:00

Okay, so i did fix it myself, just one question, are is your onedrive connected? Because that was my problem

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-07-20T00:49:50+00:00

    tldr. What works for me is Pausing and Resuming syncing from the OneDrive icon in the system tray. This is only a temporary fix as it does re-occur.

    I have this same issue recurring with both OneDrive personal and my OneDrive for business.
    I am on Win11 upgraded from Win10.

    When all the normal OneDrive status symbols disappear and instead I get the the box symbol (maybe a storage/archive box?) overlay I can still click on them and they will download/open even if they weren't already on my machine, so doesn't seem to cause me an issue I just don't like not knowing what this is and why it happens. Having opened any given file the box overlay disappears. I am thinking it is in a not actively syncing state. So clicking on a file opens it, even downloads it if necessary, but is not constantly syncing any changes.

    I have found a way to get back to the 'normal' situation, however it is not a permanent fix and so it does re-occur.

    Click the OneDrive icon in the system tray (either personal or business)
    Click the cog symbol to open the menu
    Select Pause syncing for 2 hours
    Wait for the 'Your files are not currently syncing...' message to appear
    Click the cog symbol to open the menu again

    Select Resume syncing

    All files in both Personal and Business OneDrive now show their status symbols again, takes a few seconds as the sync process determines what is local vs offline and any changes.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-11-30T02:25:15+00:00

    Hi all,

    Sorry for the inconvenience it caused for you.

    Since this thread is on Oct, we suggest that you could to be able to re-post a post about this issue with your version number.

    Best regards,

    Jazlyn

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-11-25T11:43:46+00:00

    I too just had this today, this is such a strange problem at the worst possible time

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