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
    2022-06-26T22:39:49+00:00

    The same has happened to me. I have hundreds of Word docs I can't open and they have that little banker's box icon on them. It has happened since the switch to Windows 11.

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  2. Diane Poremsky MVP 17,536 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-06-27T03:04:18+00:00

    The same has happened to me. I have hundreds of Word docs I can't open and they have that little banker's box icon on them. It has happened since the switch to Windows 11.

    Make sure you are 1) signed into the cloud service where they are hosted and 2) have the files set for offline access.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-06-27T13:33:17+00:00

    I have exactly the same problem since my upgrade to Windows 11. Added information is that I am working from home, so I am not working on my company network, but am working on my private home network since my upgrade. I wonder if that could explain this (very inconvenient) occurence too ???

    ps I hopen to come up with an answer coming Wednesday since I will have a try at solving this issue from the office then ;).

    I bookmarked this conversation ;).

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  4. Diane Poremsky MVP 17,536 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-06-27T14:14:12+00:00

    In every case it is one of two things:

    The user is not signed into the app for the cloud service where the files are hosted

    Or

    The files are marked for online only. For files stored in OneDrive, its Free Up space, in Dropbox, its online only.

    What is the Brown File Box Icon on Files in Windows 11? | @Poremsky.com

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-07-08T23:43:49+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

    Image

    [Moved from Word / For business / Windows]

    It happened to me after I changed my MS account password. I opened MS Word and logged in with the new password and problem solved.

    I hope this helps.

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