UW-Madison Box - Meaning of File and Folder Icons

This document explains the meaning of the different folder colors in Box, as well as the various icons and tags that may be displayed for both files and folders.

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
Normal folder icon
Yellow
Your UW-Madison Box account  No
Shared folder icon
Blue
A UW-Madison Box account (you or a collaborator)  Yes
Icon for folder shared with you from an account outside of UW-Madison
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:

Shared link icon

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: Using Shared Links

Synced Icon

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: Using Box Sync

Description Icon

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

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:

A folder with the shared, synced, and information icons

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.

Folder with a tag labelled "Test"

For more information on using tags, please see the following Box Support article: Tagging Items in Box