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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

71 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Diane Poremsky MVP 17,531 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-03T03:27:07+00:00

    This is the icon in the same position in Windows 10 -

    and that was enough to find something -

    What are those little overlay icons: Windows 7 edition - The Old New Thing (microsoft.com)

    What are those little overlay icons? - The Old New Thing (microsoft.com)

    file attributes - Black-clock icon overlay? - Super User

    And I was right, thank you very much... it indicates offline. LOL

    It looks like they changed the how the apps handle the overlays - and default to the windows offline icon if the app is not one of the first 15.

    BTW - the correct key for the 15 overlays is

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellServiceObjects

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Diane Poremsky MVP 17,531 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-03T03:06:26+00:00

    We can't set an overlay - but it can be done using code. Shortcut arrows, or the shield (for requires UAC elevation), for example. Compressed and encrypted attributes also have icons.

    In addition to the few that Microsoft uses, 3rd parties can set overlays in the registry - but only the first 15 on the list are used. Dropbox is in positions 24 to 30 on my list - OneDrive has the first 7 spots.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Diane Poremsky MVP 17,531 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-03T02:31:59+00:00

    Are you syncing full files or online only (Files on Demand in OneDrive-speak)?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2022-03-02T23:11:22+00:00

    That is what I thought.

    .

    So it would not be something simple or automatic for Windows to overlay this small box icon over file default icon. The file type icon would have to be changed as a unit, ie the file default icon is changed because the file type has been redirected to DropBox (or OneDrive)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2022-03-02T22:56:29+00:00

    Diane:

    I don't think you can create an overlay for it. It's got to be in the properties somehow. I think someone in Microsoft coding should see this and respond accordingly.

    BTW - I did the OneDrive rename and resync - same results. . . .

    Tom

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments