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Admin Guide for Enabling/Disabling Co-Authoring in Box for Microsoft Office

Admin Console , Admin , Article , New , Instruction , Integration , Microsoft - Office , P4

To begin using co-authoring in Box for Microsoft Office, enable and authorize the feature for your enterprise's Box account holders.  

Note
Microsoft Co-Authoring is enabled by default for new Box customers (from July 28, 2025). You can configure or disable this integration by following the steps below. 

Enabling Co-Authoring for your Enterprise

You can enable Microsoft Co-Authoring for everyone in your enterprise, or for select people or groups. 

To enable co-authoring for everyone in your enterprise:

  1. In the Admin Console's left sidebar, click Integrations.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Scroll down to Box for Microsoft Co-authoring 
  4. Click Edit Configuration.
  5. Click On for all managed users. 
  6. Click Save.

To enable co-authoring for selected users or groups:

  1. In the Admin Console's left sidebar, click Integrations.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Scroll down to Box for Microsoft Co-authoring 
  4. Click Edit Configuration.
  5. Click Enable for select users and groups.
  6. Type the names of the users and/or groups.
  7. Click Save.

To update and edit any of your selected users and groups, click Edit Configuration.

You can add up to 100 user emails and up to 100 groups as well.

Auto-provisioning Box as a Place for your team

Previously, each user had to manually add Box as an online storage location in Microsoft Office desktop apps.

As an enhancement, admins can now simplify deployment by auto-provisioning Box for all enterprise users so individuals don’t need to configure it themselves.

Note:  Depending on your Office version, when first-time users open an Office file with co-authoring, they may see a one-time login prompt.  After logging in, Box is added as a Place and auto-save is automatically enabled.  If users don’t see the prompt or auto-save isn’t enabled, they may have an older Office version, or the update may not have reached your environment yet.  In this case, users can add Box as a Place manually and you can run the auto-provisioning script below to simplify the process for them.

To enable your Box account holders to add Box as a Place in Microsoft:

  1. Send the URL ms-office-storage-host:asp|d|TP_BOX_2|o|0|a|Web to your Box account holders. This URL works only on Microsoft Windows.
  2. Instruct recipients who use Microsoft Windows to cut and paste the URL into their browsers.

The URL directs recipients to Microsoft's Add a Place location, where they can sign into Microsoft and authorize Box.

For information about Microsoft's recommended networking settings, see this Microsoft page.  To avoid performance problems, in the Microsoft 365 Common and Office Online network settings, ensure ID 46 is correctly configured.

Disabling Co-Authoring for your Enterprise

You can disable Microsoft Co-Authoring for everyone in your enterprise, or for select people or groups. 

To disable co-authoring for everyone in your enterprise:

  1. In the Admin Console's left sidebar, click Integrations.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Scroll down to Box for Microsoft Co-authoring 
  4. Click Edit Configuration.
  5. Click Off for all managed users. 
  6. Click Save.

To disable co-authoring for selected users or groups:

  1. In the Admin Console's left sidebar, click Integrations.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Scroll down to Box for Microsoft Co-authoring 
  4. Click Edit Configuration.
  5. Click Enable for everyone except select users and groups.
  6. Type the names of the users and/or groups.
  7. Click Save.

To update and edit any of your selected users and groups, click Edit Configuration.

Note: Disabling some users from Co‑Authoring can break Office features  

Disabling Co‑Authoring for a subset of users can cause functional breakage in Office, especially for Excel linked workbooks.  

When some users aren’t enabled for Box for Microsoft Office Co‑Authoring (or haven’t added Box as a Connected Service in Office), Excel may try to rewrite workbook links to a local Box Drive path. With co‑authoring enabled elsewhere, this can produce broken links or version/merge errors and the Office app may show “Microsoft Excel cannot access the file…” or similar errors.  

Why this happens: Co‑authoring and the Office integration rely on consistent configuration across collaborators (Co‑Authoring enablement, Box added as a Place/Connected Service, and matching Box Drive folder paths). Mixed configurations can make Office append local filesystem paths to WOPI URLs or open files in read‑only/locked states, creating link failures or conflicts.  

Recommended fixes:

  • Enable Co‑Authoring for all managed users or at least for everyone who needs to share linked workbooks. (Admin Console → Integrations → Box for Microsoft Office Co‑Authoring) 
  • Ensure all collaborators add Box as a Connected Service / Place in Office and sign in. (Office: File → Account → Connected Services / Add a Place) 
  • For absolute links via Box Drive, make sure collaborators use the same Box Drive folder location if relying on local paths.

Support

For additional help or support related questions, visit the following support page: Support for Box for Microsoft Office Co-Authoring – Box Support

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