nextcloud / nextcloud/desktop

[Bug]: Nextcloud messes with desktop icons on Windows

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Description

### ⚠️ Before submitting, please verify the following: ⚠️

- [X] This is a **bug**, not a question or a configuration issue.
- [X] This issue is **not** already reported on Github (I've searched it).
- [X] Nextcloud Server and Desktop Client are **up to date**. See [Server Maintenance and Release Schedule](https://github.com/nextcloud/server/wiki/Maintenance-and-Release-Schedule) and [Desktop Releases](https://nextcloud.com/install/#install-clients) for supported versions.
- [X] I agree to follow Nextcloud's [Code of Conduct](https://nextcloud.com/contribute/code-of-conduct/)

### Bug description

When I'm running Nextcloud on Windows, my desktop icons sometimes get the red/yellow/green circle in the bottom left corner, even though I'm not synchronizing any files or folders on my desktop (or subfolder thereof). This happens sporadically, I'm not sure how to reproduce it. The likelihood is higher when I'm installing an update for Nextcloud or when files are synchronizing in the background, but sometimes it seems to happen for no reason at all. Usually the icons revert to normal after ~15 min to 6 hours. This has been happening for at least a year now, with different major and minor versions of Nextcloud.

Today, it happened again, but this time the icon overlay was not the Nextcloud sync status indicator, but one of my desktop icons, overlayed in the bottom left quadrant of every other desktop icon. I tried to force a refresh by restarting the Nextcloud desktop client and indeed, the icons changed, this time to the yellow circle, which is still annoying, but at least much less so than before.

### Steps to reproduce

I have no idea, really. The behavior is definitely caused by Nextcloud, but what other circumstances might contribute, I can only speculate. I'm using [ExplorerPatcher](https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher), which modifies appearance of the task bar, but it doesn't change anything about desktop icons. But other than that, no fancy mods that change the Windows UI or something.

### Expected behavior

Nextcloud should not touch my desktop icons, ever.

### Which files are affected by this bug

my desktop icons, which I did not even set up to be synced by Nextcloud

### Operating system

Windows

### Which version of the operating system you are running.

Windows 11 22H2 (22621.3880)

### Package

MSI Installer

### Nextcloud Server version

29.0.3.4

### Nextcloud Desktop Client version

3.13.2

### Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

Updated from a minor version (ex. 3.4.2 to 3.4.4)

### Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

Encryption is Disabled

### Are you using an external user-backend?

- [X] Default internal user-backend
- [ ] LDAP/ Active Directory
- [ ] SSO - SAML
- [ ] Other

### Nextcloud Server logs

_No response_

### Additional info

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No source files, tests, or reproducible steps are identified. Start by investigating the Windows desktop-client behavior on Windows 11 with the MSI installation, especially during updates or background synchronization. Done means identifying a reliable trigger and preventing Nextcloud overlay icons from appearing on unsynchronized desktop icons.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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