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.

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-12-17T22:59:38+00:00

    In your mail application, use the Attach facility to browse to and select the file.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-12-17T17:35:52+00:00

    Thanks for the feedback and support.

    Tom

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-12-17T17:00:04+00:00

    Hello Tom,

    As per our discussion in the private message and using the personal account, I am moving this thread to the correct category i.e, Home, where the members in the community will assist you further.

    Best Regards,

    Chitrahaas

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-12-17T00:10:07+00:00

    Doug - it won’t attach. Clicking on it won’t highlight it nor will dragging it attach it..

    Tom

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  5. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-12-16T23:59:43+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

    Image

    You do not need to open the file to send it to me. Simply attach it to an email message.

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