Error Message 'Unable to open folder'
I recently installed box drive on a new device, and after a few hours of normal use, I've been getting bombarded with a strange error message 'unable to open folder' for many folders i have tried opening (though certainly exist within our shared documents).
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Have we confirmed that adding the keys is the fix? We use Tenable.io and it seems that this happens to our users from time to time when a scan runs.
What does this actually do?
- Create the regkey
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Box/Box/BannedProcessNamesand set to aREG_MULTI_SZtype. - Then add the name of the process to the list,
powershell.exe
- Create the regkey
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So, I'm getting this today - over and over again. This is on Windows 10. It's clearly a defect in the Box Drive design - don't they have any intention of fixing it? There is no reason I should have to remove or disable programs or their access to certain directories. Box should work OK with the same things every other program is OK with.
At a minimum, can't Box give us a way to reduce the number of messages? For example, why can't I get just ONE notification each time Box goes through all the folders, instead of a notification for each of the (many) folders I have?
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Box Support provided the following explanation: "This is a behavior that we have seen in the past and our Engineering Team has identified that this is caused by 3rd party programs traversing through the filesystem. When scanning files in the Box Drive folder, this triggers a download of any non-cached documents. For users with a large number of files, you'll see high CPU usage, network degradation, and if the download requests exceed a rate limit, you'll start receiving these notifications. Since the software continues to scan, the user gets hit with a bunch of notifications in quick succession."
They recommend creating the "Banned Processes Name" registry key as others have mentioned previously...not the answer I was hoping for :(
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Jimmy Buck I don't think anyone is relying on a tool to scan the users PC for box security, it's endpoint security that's the concern. The Box Drive folders are still on the users endpoint and adding an exception is one place that you won't be looking for malicious content that could harm the computer.
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I found the culprit in my environment. Review the Streem file located in %localappdata%\Box\Box\Logs\Box_Stream_DATE.log
To fix I remotely ran this command to fix. (Keep in mind for my environment it was EmUser.exe (Related to an Ivanti product we use)
REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Box\Box" /v BannedProcessNames /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d EmUser.exe
Here is a sample from log file...
2022-09-21 12:06:11.577 ERROR 0x00004494 [winfs:647][onEnumerateDirectory] [EmUser.exe] ..\streemfs\filesystem\folderfetch\folderfetcher.cpp(114): Throw in function void __cdecl box::throwAppropriateFetchErrorIfNecessary(const class std::shared_ptr<class box::BaseFSFolder> &)
Dynamic exception type: struct boost::wrapexcept<class box::FSTimeoutException>
std::exception::what: Unknown exception
[struct box::exceptionInodeIdObject * __ptr64] = 43553 -
Awecomm - We solved this by removing Box from the Notifications in Windows.
Taskbar > Manage notifications (in the top right) > Scroll down to Box and turn it off. It has not come up again, effectively solving this for our org.
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We've done that as a temporary work-around but that's far from an actual solution. If there is an issue with their application that our clients are paying for that's something their support should be attempting to resolve.
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Hiding all Box Drive notifications isn't a good workaround. You need to look through the logs and find out which application is trying to open the files. It is usually a security application of some kind. When you find out which application it is, do whatever you need to do to exclude the Box Drive folder. At my company, it was both McAfee and Nessus by Tenable that were reading the files. Once we whitelisted the Box Drive folder, the notifications went away.
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Over 2 years later and having this issue when using Adobe applications. Locks up my file explorer, MS apps, and Adobe apps.
Processor Name: Intel Core i7 (same as someone elses)
I logged out of Box and it resolved the issue but this isn't a long term solution as my company regularly works out of shared Box folders.
Hoping that keeping the thread alive will bring the attention from Box.
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