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Shortcuts on desktop repeatedly cycle between checkmark, X, account, and down arrow symbols

Anonymous
2023-02-26T21:40:09+00:00

Hello,

Shortcuts normally have a little arrow symbol in the bottom left of their icon, to show it's a shortcut. A little over a week ago, all the shortcuts on my desktop started periodically cycling between a down arrow symbol, then what looks like an accounts symbol, to a grey X, then finally a green checkmark before doing the whole cycle again. It only takes a few seconds to complete a cycle, and will continue for up to several minutes before the icons return to the normal shortcut symbol or no symbol at all. It's incredibly distracting to have all the icons doing this in the background while I'm on my computer.

The expected behavior is for desktop shortcuts to display the little shortcut arrow at all times, to match what's seen in file explorer.

Things I've tried:

  • By far the most common suggestion online is this is caused by one drive, and can be solved by disabling any syncing rules. The problem there is I don't use one drive and have never logged into it to set up syncing rules. It's also strange that this would only occur with shortcuts, and not actual files, but oh well. As I don't have any rules to disable; I uninstalled one drive and restarted my computer in case there was some internal confusion going on, but the shortcut symbols continued to cycle.
  • Another suggestion was to disconnect my account from one drive, which I can't do because I have no account connected to one drive.
  • Backup is currently turned off in the control panel, and I'm not signed into one drive.
  • Sync Settings is turned on in the control panel. Turning it off doesn't stop the cycling.
  • Refreshing the desktop doesn't stop the cycling, even while it's happening.
  • The symbols are only visible on the desktop. Viewing the desktop files through file explorer displays only the little arrow on shortcuts, without any cycling. This is what I would expect the desktop to display.

I've tried to include pictures to illustrate what I'm seeing, but they're failing to upload. I'll be happy to provide any additional info as needed.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-20T18:16:05+00:00

    Following up to confirm resetting this PC with a fresh Windows install has cleared the problem. For the sake of keeping notes: I chose to erase all drives when given the choice, and did not have the reset wizard keep any of my personal files. I did that manually with an external hard drive.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2023-02-27T00:09:12+00:00

    Certainly. Here's the SteamVR one

    Interesting note: This is the first time I've done anything to that shortcut in maybe a week, much less 33 minutes ago. Not sure what that's about.

    As for other cloud storage options, there's none that I know of. I half suspect it was my last computer update (Common fallback, right?) because that's about the time I first noticed it. ...or I've been blind and this has been going on for a while.

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  3. EmilyS726 225.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-02-26T23:04:45+00:00

    This is definitely very interesting. You've got a mix of symbols. Some I recognize as OneDrive's, but that solid green check is usually on the lower left, not center. Then you have the down blue arrow, which I can't figure out which product it can come from. I looked up Norton cloud, dropbox, google drive and carbonite and none has that down blue arrow. The gray x is usually a corrupted issue and can be resolved by refreshing.

    Are you aware of any other possible cloud storage solution you have installed?

    Can you right click on one of those that has the solid green check icon and go to properties, and copy the location field and share if you don't mind. I want to exam the file path.

    Thanks!

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-26T22:34:00+00:00

    Image

    Huzzah! That worked

    Those four images are in the order they cycle from left to right

    Below are examples of the normal shortcut arrow and no symbol at all. Either of which may happen once the cycling stops, and remains until it starts again

    Edit: I apparently spoke too soon. My shortcuts have been sitting at no symbol, and just changed to have the shortcut arrow. No cycling involved.

    Image

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  5. EmilyS726 225.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-02-26T22:17:34+00:00

    Hello Blue, this is Emily.

    You can actaully paste your sceenshot directly in a reply. A screenshot will definitely help in this case.

    I suspected OneDrive at first too, but you mentioned a gray x, which is not an OneDrive related icon. So hopefully once we have the screenshot I can better identify what it can be. Thanks!

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