UW-Madison Box - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is a list of frequently asked questions and answers about the Box service through UW-Madison.

What do I do if I am already signed up for a Box personal account using my <first.last>@wisc.edu address?

If your <first.last>@wisc.edu address is already associated with a personal Box account, you will not be able to add it as a linked address to your enterprise account through UW-Madison. You will need to remove your <first.last>@wisc.edu from your personal account and request to have the personal account deactivated (optional).

Steps to remove your @wisc.edu email address from your personal Box account:

  1. Login to your personal box account here:

    • If you do not know the password to your personal account, there will be an option to reset/recover the password.

  2. Access Account Settings from the drop down menu in the upper right corner and scroll down to the Login and Email Addresses section.

  3. Add a non-@wisc.edu email alias to the personal Box account.

  4. Promote your new email address to the primary email address on your personal Box account.

  5. Remove the @wisc.edu address from the  Login and Email Addresses section of the Account Settings page by clicking on the Remove link next to the address.

  6. UW-Madison Box - Linking Alternate Addresses

Optional steps to deactivate your personal Box account:

It takes 120 days for Box to completely purge and release the email address(es) for reuse from an account that has been deactivated. It is recommended that you first remove your <first.last>@wisc.edu from the personal box account before deactivating the account. To deactivate a personal account follow Box instructions for Canceling your Personal or Starter Account

Can I create a personal Box account with my wisc.edu email address?

When a UW-Madison staff member or student attempts to register a personal account through box.com using an email address ending in *wisc.edu, their new account will be auto-enrolled as an account covered under the UW-Madison Enterprise Box license.

Upon submitting your email address that contains "@wisc.edu", a window will pop up asking to join your UW-Madison box account. Push Continue. You will be redirected https://uwmadison.box.com, where you should click the Continue button again. Following this, you will be prompted to log in with your NetID and password.

Upon logging in, one of three scenarios will take place:

  • If you had never previously created a UW-Madison Box account for your netid@wisc.edu address, one will automatically be created for you.
  • If you do currently have an account set up for your netid@wisc.edu address, you will be logged into that account.
  • If you are not eligible for a UW-Madison Box account you will see: Access Denied: You are not eligible for the service requested.

Can I log in using my departmental email address? e.g. bucky@dept.wisc.edu

No, Microsoft 365 Service Accounts can not log-in to UW Madison Box. See Microsoft 365 - Applications that Microsoft 365 service accounts can access using NetID login for the list of services that support O365 Service Account access.

If you would like to use Box to collaborate on files for a group or team, we recommend requesting a Project Directory. For additional information, please see: UW-Madison Box - Project Directories

Users who prefer to collaborate using their departmental address should add it as an alternate address on their primary UW Madison Box account. For information on how to connect your alternate email addresses to your Box account, please see: UW-Madison Box - Alternate Email Account.

Note: Box notifications only go to the primary address on the Box account.

Why am I getting an error message when I add an email alias to my account? e.g bucky@box.wisc.edu

Example:

Individuals usually receive this error when the address they are attempting to add as a Linked Address is already in use with another Box account. Typically this indicates that you have a personal Box account using the address. We know there are about 1000 personal box accounts that were created prior to March 2017 using UW-Madison <first.last>@wisc.edu and department accounts like bucky@doit.wisc.edu. To resolve this issue please see What do I do if I am already signed up for a Box personal account?.

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Does UW-Madison Box use my legal name or Name in Use in my profile?

UW-Madison Box will display your Name in Use if you have one set, otherwise your legal name is used. Your Box profile is updated at each login. If you change your Name in Use you need to login to Box in order for the change to be reflected in your Box profile. For more information about changing Name in Use see MyUW Madison - Update Name in Use (Preferred Name)

How much file storage or quota space am I given?

Beginning June 15, 2020, the default quota for all new UW-Madison Box accounts and Project Directories is 50GB.

Box no longer offers free unlimited storage as part of the UW-Madison Box contract. Storage use and quotas for your individual Box account can be determined by viewing your Account Settings in Box. For more information about viewing your Box Storage Quota, please see: UW-Madison Box - View account storage usage and limit.

Box accounts are limited to single file uploads of 50GB or the space available in the Box account. For more information see UW-Madison Box - File Size Limit.

Are my Box files backed up?

UW-Madison Box data is not backed up using traditional nightly backups. Instead, whenever a new version of a file is uploaded to your account, Box stores two copies of the file. One at Box's primary data center and another copy at their secondary data storage facility. UW-Madison Box accounts also maintain up to 100 versions of each file and deleted files are recoverable from the trash for 90-days. However, if a file ages out of the trash or if the file is otherwise purged from trash we can not recover the file. While these measures protect against many failure modes it does not allow us to recover a Box account back to a specific point in time.

How do I recover a deleted item?

Deleted items are recoverable from Trash for 90 days.

  • You can recover items you deleted.
  • You can also recover items owned by your account.

Please note there are two different trashes called "Items I Deleted" and "Items I Own". 

For instructions on how to recover deleted items from Trash, see: Managing Trash.

How do I transfer ownership of a folder?

You can easily transfer a folder you own to another Box user by inviting them as a collaborator and then changing their collaborator permission to "Owner". See Box documentation on Transferring Folder Ownership for instructions. Your collaborator permissions will be downgraded to Editor after the transfer.

Note:If you want to transfer content to a Project Directory you should move the file/folder rather than transferring ownership. See Moving and Copying Files & Folders.

Only the content Owner can transfer files/folders to another user. Please work with departing faculty, staff, and students to make sure that University files are transferred as necessary.

All collaborators, including co-owners, will lose access to content when the primary Owner's account is deactivated. Until deactivation occurs a Co-owner or Editor can copy or move files to a new location.

Can I access my Box files offline?

Offline file access is not a native feature for Box accounts, but is possible with Box Drive or Box Sync, the official Box apps for desktop and certain mobile clients. Information and links to install Box Sync can be found on the following Box support page: About Box Sync. Information on how to make content available offline via Box Drive can be found here.

Note: Box Sync is expected to be deprecated in favor of Box Drive. No date has been announced for when Box will stop supporting Box Sync.

Box Sync is not supported on Apple Silicon devices, and users may experience service disruption with continued use of Box Sync and Apple Silicon devices.

Can I collaborate with a Google Group, Microsoft 365 Group or WiscList?

No. While Box will allow you to enter a Group or List email address in the sharing configuration, the individual members will not become collaborators. Box will issue an invitation email that will go to the group but you will see a permission status of "Pending" in the Sharing or Collaboration details for the file/folder. Group members will not be able to access the file or folder that was shared.

Does Box support WebDav?

Box deprecated support for WebDAV on October 25, 2019. Box has completed the end of life for WebDav on April 28, 2023.

WebDAV connections to Box will continue to work but Box will no longer resolve any issues that may arise as result. You are encouraged to stop using WebDAV and start using the web application, Box Drive, or FTP.

Limited information concerning troubleshooting WebDav connections and known issues can be found on the following Box support page: WebDav with Box

Does Box.com own or have permission to use the data I upload to my account?

No. You retain intellectual property rights for any and all data stored in a UW-Madison Enterprise Box account, including Project Directories. The vendor is limited to collecting superficial data used explicitly for purposes of service operation; they at no time may view, use, copy, or sell any account data, including personal information and account content. For more information, see Section 8 of the Internet2 / UW-Madison Box Enterprise Customer Agreement.

What happens to my Box account when I leave the university?

Only Faculty, Staff, and Students that have a current UW-Madison affiliation are eligible for a Box account. When you leave the University your account will be deactivated and deleted. All collaborators, including co-owners, will lose access to content when the primary Owner's account is deactivated. For more information on account deactivation, please see: Help Desk - Resources for Microsoft 365, Google, Zoom, Box, and Qualtrics account changes or deactivation.

It is your responsibility to work with your supervisor to identify, migrate, and/or properly store all UW-Madison records so that they can be held in accordance with public records schedules and can be accessed by UW-Madison if necessary. 



Keywordsbox box.com box.net frequently asked questions faq enterprise personal account migration microsoft 365 office 365 o365 departmental address quota request offline access files sync intellectual property deactivation webdav error delete restore trash transfer preferred name deactivation co-owner google storage space size unlimited project email alias link error accessibility usability group groups wisclist list box integration error message backup name use alternative create linking alternate recover transferring drive   Doc ID26291
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Created2012-08-30 12:40:35Updated2024-01-16 12:24:08
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