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
    2022-03-18T10:09:58+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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  2. 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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  3. Anonymous
    2022-03-25T14:59:06+00:00

    I had the same problem.

    My solution is to open Task Manager, find and kill all instances of "OneDrive.exe" (I have a personal and a work OneDrive on the same computer). Wait for the OneDrive icon in the Taskbar to disappear. Then launch OneDrive again.

    This fixes the problem for me, and everything will then sync normally afterwards.

    Unfortunately, I need to perform this action often because the "box icon" problem pops up from time to time.

    Dave

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    3 people found this answer helpful.
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