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. Charles Kenyon 170.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-16T10:45:48+00:00

    I have the same issue, but luckily not as many files. It does not really matter to me what the icon looks like or came from, rather how do I open my file(s) now? It is since the upgrade to Windows 11. It is definitely the same icon - word with a small brown box overlay in the left bottom corner. Again, how to get into my file please. Thank you.

    what happens when you try to o pen the messages?

    Are you signed into the cloud service they are stored in? The messages are online-only, so you do need to be signed into the service that synced them, to your computer.

    Messages?

    Files?

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  2. Diane Poremsky MVP 17,536 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-16T02:06:56+00:00

    I have the same issue, but luckily not as many files. It does not really matter to me what the icon looks like or came from, rather how do I open my file(s) now? It is since the upgrade to Windows 11. It is definitely the same icon - word with a small brown box overlay in the left bottom corner. Again, how to get into my file please. Thank you.

    what happens when you try to o pen the messages?

    Are you signed into the cloud service they are stored in? The messages are online-only, so you do need to be signed into the service that synced them, to your computer.

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  3. Charles Kenyon 170.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-15T21:46:35+00:00

    I have the same issue, but luckily not as many files. It does not really matter to me what the icon looks like or came from, rather how do I open my file(s) now? It is since the upgrade to Windows 11. It is definitely the same icon - word with a small brown box overlay in the left bottom corner. Again, how to get into my file please. Thank you.

    You have to read through the entire thread to see. It appears this indicates a cloud file that has not been synchronized to your hard drive. See all of Diane's posts on March 2.

    If that does not help, I would suggest posting a new question to have the best change of resolving your problem, perhaps with a link to this question.

    How to Ask Questions In this Forum

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-03-15T21:14:02+00:00

    I have the same issue, but luckily not as many files. It does not really matter to me what the icon looks like or came from, rather how do I open my file(s) now? It is since the upgrade to Windows 11. It is definitely the same icon - word with a small brown box overlay in the left bottom corner. Again, how to get into my file please. Thank you.

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  5. Diane Poremsky MVP 17,536 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-03T06:39:07+00:00

    BTW - using that dialog is just a quick and easy way to browse the shell icons to see if its a windows icon.

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