Deleting a User and Transferring Their Content

As the Administrator of your organization's Box instance, you can delete managed users and transfer their content to another user in your account. Please note this does not affect either existing collaborations or shared links, so users do not lose access to the content after the transfer completes.

If your enterprise has Governance enabled with an active retention policy, you cannot delete a user without transferring their content.

Note

You can also remove users via the Box API or CLI.

To delete a user and transfer a user's content:

1. Log in to your account and navigate to the Admin Console.
2. In the lefthand navigation, click Users and Groups.
3. Select the user you want to delete. The Edit User Account Details section displays.  Click Delete this User. (Find this link between the Status and Language boxes.) You then have the option to transfer any content the user owns to another user, or to delete it entirely.

   Admin Tip: You can transfer everything to yourself and then apportion the content out to other users.

   
4. A new window displays, indicating the number of files and folders the user owns and the amount of storage space they are using on the account. Here you're presented with the option either to delete the content that the user owns, or transfer it to another user in the account. If you are not prompted with the option to transfer content, then the user you are attempting to delete does not own any content and is currently only collaborating on content.
   
   
5. To delete the content, click Delete Content and then click Continue.
6. To transfer the content to another user, click Transfer Content to Another User. To designate a recipient, either type in the email address of another user in your account or click the contact icon to see a list of available users and then click Continue. Any content in the user's trash is transferred and displays in the receiver's trash. You must ensure you're filtering the trash by "Items I own" to see these items. Box does not transfer any trashed items the user does not own.
   
   
7. In the final step, the system prompts you to confirm this deletion/transfer, and presents you with the option to notify the affected user or users via email. When you select the users you would like to be notified, click Transfer Content and Delete User to apply the changes.
8. When the transfer completes, the deleted user's content displays in the recipient's root level under a folder titled "[Deleted User's Email] - [Deleted User's Name]'s Files and Folders."