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Viewing Different File Types Supported in Box Content Preview

End User , Overview , Article , Product Utilization , Established

This article lists the file types supported through the Box Web app and Box Mobile apps. Box Content Preview is limited to files sized 500 MB or smaller.

Box Content Preview supports the following file categories:

Text-Based Documents

'as', 'as3', 'asm', 'bat', 'c', 'cc', 'cmake', 'cpp', 'cs', 'css', 'csv', 'cxx', 'diff', 'doc', 'docx', 'erb', 'gdoc', 'groovy', 'gsheet', 'h', 'haml', 'hh', 'htm', 'html', 'java', 'js', 'json', 'less', 'log', 'm', 'make', 'md', 'ml', 'mm', 'msg', 'ods', 'odt', 'pages', 'pdf', 'php', 'pl', 'properties', 'py', 'rb', 'rst', 'rtf', 'sass', 'scala', 'scm', 'script', 'sh', 'sml', 'sql', 'txt', 'vi', 'vim', 'webdoc', 'wpd', 'xhtml', 'xls', 'xlsb', 'xlsm', 'xlsx', 'xml', 'xsd', 'xsl', 'xbd', 'xdw' 'yaml'

Note
  • As Box relies on Excel Online to support the preview of .xlsm and .xlsb files, Box Preview is restricted to features supported by Excel Online. More information about Excel Online preview on the Office Support site.
  • Using Box’s native spreadsheet viewer, Excel files are limited to fewer than 100 columns and 100,000 rows. Using the Excel Online viewer, the maximum file size you can view is 5MB.
  • You cannot print DocuWorks (.xdw) files directly from Box Preview.  To print a DocuWorks file, download it first.
  • Print is disabled for CSV files when using UI elements.

Presentations

'gslide', 'gslides', 'key', 'odp', 'ppt', 'pptx'

Images

'ai', 'bmp', 'cr2', 'crw', 'dng', 'eps', 'gif', 'heic', 'indd', 'indml', 'indt',  'inx', 'jpeg', 'jpg', 'nef', 'png', 'ps', 'psd', 'raf', 'raw', 'svg', 'svs', 'tga', 'tif', 'tiff', 'webp'


Notes:
  • You must save Illustrator ('ai') files in PDF-compatible mode to preview them in Box.
  • For InDesign files, references to external assets are replaced by medium quality images.

Audio Files

'aac', 'aif', 'aifc', 'aiff', 'amr', 'au', 'flac', 'm4a', 'mp3', 'ogg', 'ra', 'wav', 'wma'

Video Files

'3g2', '3gp', 'avi', 'm2v', 'm2ts', 'm4v', 'mkv', 'mov', 'mp4', 'mpeg', 'mpg', 'ogg', 'mts', 'qt', 'ts', 'wmv'

Notes:
  • Video preview is available only to Business level Box accounts, and above. If you use a free or personal Box account, you can still preview video files owned by Business Plus-level accounts and above.
  • Content Preview does not support AVCHD (Advanced Video Coding High Definition). This is a specific video format. It does not refer to all high definition video. Content Preview does support several other high-definition video formats, as listed above.)
  • The supported "ts" file type refers to "Transport Stream" video files, not "Typescript" files.  Box does not currently support "Typescript" files.

Flash/Mobile Video Files

'flv', 'swf'

For security reasons, Content Preview does not support Flash files that require network or script access.

You cannot preview flash videos in Box. You must download and view them on your desktop.

Compressed Files

'zip'

Box Mobile apps cannot preview zip files.

Find out more about how zip files work in Box Preview.

3D (Graphics and Modeling) Files

'3ds', 'box3d', 'dae', 'dwg', 'fbx', 'obj', 'ply', 'stl'

Notes:
  • 3D preview is available only to Business Plus-level Box accounts and above. If you use a free or personal Box account, you can still preview 3D files owned by Business Plus-level accounts and above.
  • You cannot print 3D Image Files directly from Content Preview. To print a 3D image, download it first.
  • The mobile app does not support 3D Preview.

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