UW-Madison Box - Meaning of File and Folder Icons
When you are viewing your Box directory, there are a number of visual indicators for your files and folders that can tell you basic information about the item at a glance, for example, whether it is private or shared, or if it is being synced to another device.
- Folder Colors in Box help indicate whether others have access to the folder.
- Icons next to a file or folder indicate whether the item has sharing links enabled, if it is synced, and/or whether it has a description.
- Tags next to a file or folder are used to apply custom labels, which can then also be used as filters when searching.
Folder Colors
There are three primary folder colors used in Box, which help indicate who owns the folder and whether it has collaborators:
| Owned By | Has Collaborators | |
|---|---|---|
 Yellow |
Your UW-Madison Box account | No |
 Blue |
A UW-Madison Box account (you or a collaborator) | Yes |
 Grey |
A Box account outside of UW-Madison | Yes |
For more information managing folder permissions, please see the following Box Support article: Understanding Folder Permissions
File and Folder Icons
There are three small icons (aka badges) that you may see displayed to the right of the file or folder name, which provide information on how that item is being used:
 Link Icon |
A link icon indicates that the item has an active Shared Link in place. For more information on managing Shared Links, please see the following Box Support article: Creating Shared Links |
 Check-mark Icon |
A check-mark icon indicates that the item is currently being synced to at least one of your devices. For more information on syncing files and folders, please see the following Box Support article: Box Sync Frequently Asked Questions |
 Info Icon |
A letter "I" (info) icon indicates that the item has a description. Hovering over this icon will display the description in a small pop-up above the icon. For more information about using descriptions, please see the following Box Support article: Adding Descriptions to Folders and Files |
 Lock Icon |
The lock icon indicates that a file is locked and cannot be edited. For more information on locking folders, please see the following Box Support article: Locking & Unlocking Files |
A folder with multiple icons will look like this:
File and Folder Tags
Users who have Editor access (or higher) to a file or folder may add custom tags to assist with sorting and filtering. Once set, the tag is visible to all collaborators who have access to that item.
Existing tags will be displayed below the file or folder details. If there is more than one tag present, they will be comma-separated.
For more information on using tags, please see the following Box Support article: Tagging Items in Box