Watermarking can help deter unauthorized re-sharing of sensitive information in your Box account. When you turn on watermarking for a file, Box places across the document's contents a semi-transparent overlay of the current viewer's email address or IP address (depending on whether the viewer is logged in), as well as time of access.
When you add a watermark in Box, Box creates and displays a pixel-based watermark. When you view a file, Box displays existing pixel-based watermarks, as well as vector-based watermarks that were created by other tools.
Note
Watermarking is available only for Enterprise Box accounts. This feature is "on" globally by default, and can be enabled at the file or folder level by users with editor permission levels and above. To disable this feature, please contact your Customer Success manager.
You must be an owner, co-owner or editor of a file or folder to set and remove a watermark.
To watermark an individual file:
- Hover on the file.
- Do one of the following:
- Right-click on the file, then hover on More Actions and click Watermarking, or
- Click the ellipsis (...), then hover on More Actions and click Watermarking.
- Check Enable watermarking for this file.
- Click Save.
To watermark all files in a folder:
- Hover on the folder.
- Do one of the following:
- Right-click on the folder, then click Settings, or
- Click the ellipsis (...), then click Settings.
- Scroll down to the Watermarking section.
- Check Enable watermarking for this folder.
- Click Save Changes.
Permissions
If watermarking is turned on for a file, people at all access levels will see the watermark when they preview the file. This allows the enabling users to validate that watermarking is turned on correctly.
Watermarked files can still be edited by users who have permission to edit. Owners, Co-owners, Editors, and Viewer-Uploaders can download the original file and make edits. Viewers will still see a watermark in a downloaded file.
Use the table below to see how previews and downloads are handled for different access levels.
| Access Level | Current File Version Preview | Current File Version Download | Previous File Versions Download |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Owner |
Watermarked | NOT Watermarked | NOT Watermarked |
|
Co-Owner |
Watermarked | NOT Watermarked | NOT Watermarked |
|
Editor |
Watermarked | NOT Watermarked | NOT Watermarked |
|
Viewer Uploader |
Watermarked | NOT Watermarked | NOT Watermarked |
|
Viewer* |
Watermarked** | Watermarked** | File Inaccessible |
|
Previewer Uploader |
Watermarked | File Inaccessible | File Inaccessible |
|
Previewer |
Watermarked | File Inaccessible | File Inaccessible |
|
Uploader |
File Inaccessible | File Inaccessible | File Inaccessible |
* Users with Viewer permissions cannot see watermarked files in Box Drive.
**Not supported for iWork files
Notes
- Watermarks do not appear on the following files types unless you have only the Previewer access level. This is because the Box web application downloads these files when previewing them:
as, as3, asm, bat, c, cc, cmake, cpp, cs, css, csv, cxx, diff, erb, groovy, h, haml, hh, htm, html, java, js, less, log, m, make, md, ml, mm, php, pl, plist, properties, py, rb, rst, sass, scala, script, scm, sml, sql, sh, tsv, txt, vi, vim, webdoc, xhtml, yaml. - Box Notes, video, audio, flash, .msi, .exe, .zip, and 3D files do not support watermarking. Enabling this feature prevents previewer uploaders, viewers and previewers from viewing these file types.
- Currently, enabling and disabling watermarking on a folder is supported only on the Box Web app. While this setting cannot be configured on mobile, Box Mobile users still see watermarks when appropriate.
- If a file is watermarked before a move/copy operation, it will remain watermarked even if it is moved or copied to a non-watermarking folder.
Downloading Watermarked Files
Important: When using a shared link to access watermarked content, non-collaborators must have a Box account to download watermarked files or folders.
- Box for Android does not support the downloading of watermarked files.
- Box for iOS does not support the downloading of watermarked files.
- If you're a co-owner, editor, viewer uploader, or the owner of a file, the file downloads normally.
- If you're viewer of a file:
- you cannot download watermarked files directly from the folder view. Instead, you must first preview the file to generate the watermarked version.
- you cannot preview any files of types that do not support watermarking even if they're in a watermarked folder.
- you can only download watermarked files individually, and also not as part of a folder download
- watermarked text files download in PDF format.
- watermarked image files download in the file's original format.
- Box Drive does not support downloading watermarked files.
- Box for EMM does not support downloading watermarked files.
- If you're an owner, co-owner, editor, or viewer uploader you can download watermarked files larger than 500 MB in size.
- non-collaborators cannot preview or download watermarked files or folders if they're using a password-protected shared link to access the watermarked content.