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L B.'s avatar
L B.
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago

Gray X on Files

Hi,   I have thousands of gray Xs on my dropbox files and they will not open. When I click on the file I get an adobe notification that says "somethings gone wrong" or if it is Words, it simply f...
Desktop
Sync
  • GreyWolfSweden's avatar
    GreyWolfSweden
    3 years ago

    In case you are absolutely sure that a particular file is LOCAL, and not involved in any syncing scheme (DropBox or OneDrive), you can reset the grey X icon flag in Windows CMD with the command ATTRIB -O  <myfile>

     

    Do a CD to the folder with the problematic file and perform: attrib -O "my problem file.txt" on that file.

    In my case, the X flags appeared after reverting from the DropBox Backup scheme for Desktop back to the pristine LOCAL

    file status, which apparently did not succeed: Most of the icons in my Desktop were tagged with the grey X after disabling the backup sync. With  DIR/B > repair.bat  in CMD you can edit the the file repair.bat to contain the attrib -O command for each row and then execute the repair.bat script. Make sure to put double quotes "..." around file names with blanks or strange characters. Only do this if you are absolutely sure that the files are NOT involved in a syncing scheme (DropBox, OneDrive, or other).

    Example of such a repair.bat:

    attrib -O "AAA_README.doc"
    attrib -O "Acid-Jazz-playlist-55-pieces.txt"
    attrib -O "Project-555.txt"
    attrib -O "PhDs.txt"
    attrib -O "Winehouse.docx"

    The grey X flags on the icons will disappear within seconds.

jows_yang's avatar
jows_yang
New member | Level 2
4 years ago

I just had the same problem. The solution for me was to uninstall OneDrive. Then Task Manager >> Windows Explorer restart. No more gray "X" and back to the normal dropbox file icons. Hope this helps. 

  • MrCartaaaa's avatar
    MrCartaaaa
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    Thank you,

     

    This worked for me.

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