When a folder goes missing it is typically because the owner of the folder has left the university and their account is going through deactivation. The account is set to "inactive" in Box approximately 90 days after the account begins deactivation. At that point all collaborators, even co-owners, lose access to files or folders owned by the account going through deactivation. For more information about account deactivation see Help Desk - Deactivation Timeline for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Zoom, Box, Qualtrics

While file recovery is never guaranteed, we can usually locate missing files as long as the owner's account has not been deleted. Accounts are deleted 270 days after the owner becomes ineligible for Box.

To initiate recovery of a folder or file we need enough detail about the folder name and the owner to be able to locate the missing content. The following information can help us investigate:

1. Name of the file or folder, or your best guess. Please include the full folder path.
2. When was the last time you accessed the folder? Or your best guess?
3. Name of the Owner of the file or folder. If you are not sure, think of someone who might have left more than 3 months ago.
4. Any Shared Links you have to the file or folder.

Note: The following form can be used to request file/folder recovery help from the UW-Madison Box team: UW-Madison Box Folder Recovery Request

What to expect

The UW-Madison Box team will do our best to work with you to locate the content that you are missing. Once we locate the folder, we can transfer shared folders from a deactivated box account to an active UW-Madison co-owner. If there are no UW-Madison collaborators who are co-owners then we will need the approval of the Owner's manager/supervisor or faculty advisor in order to transfer the folder.

Note: We do not transfer folders out of active Box accounts. If you require access to or ownership of a folder owned by another active account, you will need to work with the account owner to Manage Collaborators or Transfer Folder Ownership. If the folder owner is still active, but going through deactivation we can assist with ownership transfers but only with manager approval.

Items that have been deleted by you or collaborators are recoverable from Trash for 90-days. See Managing Trash. If you are missing files that you believe were owned by you, another active UW-Madison box account or a Project Directory, the first step is to check your Trash and ask collaborators to check their Trash for the missing files. Make sure you are checking Trash for both "Items I Deleted" and "Items I Owned".

What to expect

Recovery from Trash is self-service. You will be able to restore any deleted file or folder that was owned by you or deleted by you. UW-Madison Box Administrators will not restore files from another account's Trash. 

Box files can also go missing for less obvious reasons:

• File or Folder was renamed by a collaborator.
• Content was moved to another folder by a collaborator. This can happen inadvertently during a drag/drop operation.
• You have been removed as a collaborator.

Tracking down missing content in these cases can be more challenging, but is usually successful. To initiate recovery of a folder or file we need enough detail about the folder name and the owner to be able to locate the missing content. The following information can help us investigate:

1. Name of the file or folder, or your best guess. If it is a sub-folder, please include the full folder path.
2. When was the last time you accessed the folder? Or your best guess?
3. Name of the Owner of the file or folder.
4. Any Shared Links you have to the file or folder.

The following form can be used to request file/folder recovery help from the UW-Madison Box team: UW-Madison Box Folder Recovery Request

What to expect

The UW-Madison Box team will do our best to work with you to locate the content that you are missing. Once we have identified what happened to the content, recovering access is typically self-service (e.g. restoring from Trash or moving a file back to its original location).