Office documents appear with an orange/yellow box in front of them. They won't open

Anonymous
2021-12-15T15:12:22+00:00

I recently upgraded to Windows 11 pro. I reviewing my locally stored documents, several of them have an altered ICON with what looks like a file storage box to the left of the standard application ICON. None of these files will open by double-clicking. I chatted with MS support this morning and the agent couldn't figure it out either. Fortunately, most of these documents are also on OneDrive, but I have >100 with this issue and it will take time to find and restore a working copy.

Has anyone seen this?

Thanks,

Tom

[Moved from Word / For business / Windows]

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-12-16T12:34:50+00:00

    Doug:

    Thanks for your note. Unfortunately, since the files won't actually open, I cannot attach them (only an image of them). Fortunately, I do have them on OneDrive, so I'm systematically matching file names/extensions and downloading them onto my desktop.

    I was hoping someone on the MS Office team would recognize this image and comment on same.

    Tom

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-12-16T12:18:56+00:00

    No, the only thing that changed was the move to Windows 11, and only a small number of files (less than 200) were affected. They were a mix of Word, Excel and Powerpoint files, and in a few subfolders.

    Again, I've never seen this icon image before, and neither had the Microsoft support tech I spoke with. Yes, it appears to be a banker's box, but in searching the web I've yet to come across this graphical representation.

    The mystery remains. . . .

    Tom

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-12-16T02:23:22+00:00

    It would appear they've been archived or compressed in some way. Do you have some file management software that might be doing this?

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-12-15T22:06:16+00:00

    If you send me a copy of one of the document with which you have the problem, referencing this thread in the covering email message, I will investigate the issue.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-12-15T18:28:11+00:00

    I don't recognize that icon.

    .

    The icon did not exactly match any that showed up in an image search for "Word Icon". I only found a couple approximate matches, but one was on a Mac site, none on windows.

    The closest I've found is this one on a chinese site

    .

    I also found another similar, but not identical on a Mac question forum.

    The yellow blob looks like maybe a file box. Maybe with a key slot on the front ... ?

    .

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