OneDrive files suddenly have a brown box icon on the lower left-hand corner. What does this mean?

Question

I use OneDrive's File-on-demand feature.

Somehow out of nowhere, my online-only files (files marked with cloud icon) in my OneDrive folder are marked with this brown box symbol in the lower left-hand corner of each file icons. What does this icon mean?

Many options in the right-click menu are also missing from all files in the OneDrive folder (both with and without brown box icon), notably the option to control OneDrive file-on-demand like "Free up space" and "Always keep file on this device".

The "Status" column that shows the file-on-demand icons like Cloud & green checkmark in Details view is also missing.

I have just encountered this today for the first time. What does this icon brown box icon mean? I've tried searching and can't find any explanation.

Answer 1

Hi,

I am not sure if everyone has this app, but I had the One Drive App, pre-installed for my new windows 11 device. On the app, just hit sync. Doing this resolved the brown box icon issue for me.

Hope this helps,

Cheers

Answer 2

Okay, so i did fix it myself, just one question, are is your onedrive connected? Because that was my problem

Answer 3

Have the same issue - above did not help

Answer 4

Can someone please help with this issue? I cannot excess more than 70% of my personal files!! How is this possible? better yet how do we get rid of it.

Answer 5

Hi! I was able to fix this problem by noticing a "Personal Vault" option at the bottom of the one drive list of folders. I never noticed it before, but by allowing it to be accessed everything else became accessible.