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
    2022-03-18T17:14:18+00:00

    I had a similar experience. I have discovered this an issue which recurs. A week later, the still undocumented,"brown box" reappears.

    I have not found a permanent fix. In truth, I do not understand he root of the issue.

    Tinako in the replies above 3/4/2022 had the answer. It is in OneDrive. I opened it and played around (I am not a computer guy) so I can not repeat what I did, but the problem was fixed>

    Hope this helps, One Drive is the solution.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-03-18T10:09:58+00:00

    I had a similar experience. I have discovered this an issue which recurs. A week later, the still undocumented,"brown box" reappears.

    I have not found a permanent fix. In truth, I do not understand he root of the issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-03-18T09:47:47+00:00

    Crazy, that is all it took and i clicked. the files that i have not opened on my computer previously (I have a fairly new computer) were the ones that would open. The ones i had not opened previously would not open. Then i opened the one drive app, logged back in (it actually did it automatically when it opened) and the brown box (looks like a banker's box kind of) was gone.

    I don't know how I got logged out.

    Thanks Tyler, best 'Microsoft' tech support in the whole thread.

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