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I'm unable to open Dropbox files on Windows Explorer due to OneDrive brown box icon.

Certain Dropbox files showing on my desktop cannot be opened from Windows Explorer. These files have a little brown overlay on the file icon. Dropbox support tells me this overlay is a One Drive icon and this may be causing a conflict with Dropbox. How can I resolve this (I don't use One Drive, although it is installed on my device).

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Nancy

Hey @roquefort44, thanks for posting today on our forum!

From what I understand, you're seeing the brown box icon showing next to one of the OP's files here, right?

Since you're not using OneDrive, can you try to completely uninstall it from your computer and then restart your device?

Let me know if that helps.

roquefort44

Hi Nancy, I've uninstalled One Drive but still get the same error message when opening files from my desktop.

Nancy

Hmm, I see. Did you also restart your computer in the meantime and it made no difference?

If not, I’d like a screenshot of an example file you see with this icon in your Dropbox folder, as well as the error that appears when you try to open it.

Finally, what's the current syncing status and app version of your Dropbox app?

mcollins246

I just started to get these brown boxes on my computer dropbox files. I could not open the files... so I tried quitting one drive... the brown icon stays on the file but now I can open the files. Does anyone know if there is a better fix as I use both one drive and dropbox due to clients using different share folder systems... I need both.

OldBuilders

Its extraordinary that this issue i see from varios threads has been ongoing for 3 years without a solution, only sugestion is uninstall onedrive, Were told its becasue onedrive and dropbox are both syncing files, but my onedrive is not setup to sync the dropbox folders. I need onedrive more than i need dropbox, so as i have a choice i will uninstall dropbox. goodbuy 10 years ?, of dropbox use becasue no one can be arsed to solve the problem.

Mark

OldBuilders wrote:
goodbuy 10 years ?, of dropbox use becasue no one can be arsed to solve the problem.

Dropbox cannot solve an issue with another product. Nobody, at all, would be happy if Dropbox (or any other app for that matter) suddenly started uninstalling other programs or apps.

If they have the brown box icon on them then OneDrive is syncing (or attempting to sync) the same things Dropbox is. The end user needs to stop that - Dropbox cannot. A possible issue is that the system has had Backups set on (Dropbox or OneDrive - or even both) and so they are 'competing' for the same directories.