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.

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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
    2022-02-10T10:53:18+00:00

    Hello everyone,

    I've had this problem since upgrading to Windows 11. On my windows 10 PCs I dont have this problem.

    From my experience in the last two months, it seems it's a connection problem between OneDrive and Windows.

    Whenever I keep the PC on for a long period of time, I notice the brown box appearing everywhere.

    What seems to solve the problem is restarting the PC. I usually keep my PC on and almost never turn it off. So, every two to three weeks I get the brown icons and I restart the PC and everything is back to normal.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-02-10T10:10:49+00:00

    Thanks a lot, I will test and let you know

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-09T18:03:43+00:00

    Thanks for the reply. The Brown Box (and other new mysterious icons) maybe started when I "upgraded" to Windows 11 -- didn't keep notes, and I don't remember for sure. In any case, I haven't had any obvious problems with OneDrive itself since the upgrade -- hovering over the OneDrive cloud icon says "Up to date", and clicking the icon brings up "You're all set". And when I change a file, OneDrive sees it and uploads it.

    PS: Since yesterday, I am still (or perhaps again) in the mode of no icons attached to any of my desktop files and folders.

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