The Box Drive installer automatically uninstalls Box Sync and then cleans up the remaining Sync content, which reduces the content footprint on your device. Anyone already using Box Drive who wants to uninstall Box Sync must update to the latest version. Anyone new to Box Drive and who needs Box Sync uninstalled just needs to install Box Drive and log in.
Uninstalling Box Sync
When you launch Box Drive and log in, Drive prompts you to uninstall Box Sync. The uninstallation is a one-click, guided experience, which generally only takes minutes. After the uninstallation, Box Drive automatically cleans up all “up-to-date” Sync content from your machine (that is, content that has synced to Box). All items not uploaded to Box are left in the original folder, and that folder is renamed to Archived - Box Sync. You can then review these items and either upload them manually to Box Drive or delete them. This process can restore a significant amount of space to your hard drive. It also ensures you don’t accidentally preserve any content such as sensitive customer or company data that poses a business risk if you leave it behind,
Uninstalling Box Sync via Box Drive does not disable the application. It only removes the local client. That means you can still see the "sync to desktop" options in the Box Web app even after the uninstall process. The only way to get rid of those is to disable the Box Sync application in admin console. Ask your Box administrator to do this.
Here are the system prompts. If you choose to change the default uninstallation process (details later in this article) you may not see every prompt:
You can decline the Sync uninstallation by closing the prompt. However, each successive time you start Box Drive the system prompts you to uninstall Sync, until you agree to the uninstallation. If an uninstallation is interrupted (for example, if there were errors, if you quit Drive in the midst of the uninstallation, and so on), Drive automatically resumes the process the next time you start Drive.
Overriding the default behavior
As an admin, you have several options if you wish to change the default uninstallation process (in which individuals are prompted to start the uninstallation process that automatically includes a content cleanup post-uninstallation). You can:
- Force the uninstallation and subsequent data cleanup
- Prevent the uninstallation
- Leave it up to each individual whether to uninstall
See the Related Links section below to access an article that discusses how to override the default uninstall process.
Failure to uninstall
On rare occasions Box Drive is unable to prepare the Box Sync folder for cleanup. Usually this is because a Box Sync file or folder is still open when the cleanup initiates.
If you see this error message, ensure the person has closed all files and folders. Then retry the uninstallation. If the uninstallation still fails, try restarting the machine. Box Drive attempts to resume the uninstallation the next time Drive launches after the machine restarts. If it succeeds, it progresses right into cleanup. If it does not succeed, it re-displays the error message. Please open a support ticket if this happens.
Uninstalling Sync on a multi-user machine
When a person on a multi-user machine uninstalls Box Sync, Drive cleans up only that person’s Sync data. When subsequent users log in to the machine, their Sync content remains, but they can no longer sync their content (since Sync will have been removed from their machine). The next time they log in to Drive, Drive automatically cleans up their Sync data (unless the automatic cleanup has been overridden).