Box Drive's system extension failed to load
Message:
Box Drive's system extension failed to load. Please make sure it has been enabled in System Preferences > Security & Privacy and then restart your computer.
Followed instructions, still unable to run Box Drive
Platform: MacBook Pro, macOS Big Sur, M1 Chip
-
Official comment
Hello All -
Jumping into this thread to share a few updates.
First and foremost, thank you for raising concerns with Box Drive and related challenges on macOS-based computers running macOS 11 (Big Sur). I understand this is not a desirable situation for impacted customers. We are tracking these threads and support cases closely and providing all data points to our Engineering team where this is a High priority investigation.
For purposes of transparency, there are two, separate issues at play:
- Support of Box Drive on devices running macOS 11 (Big Sur)
- Support of Box Drive on devices with Apple's New M1 Chip
From a user experience perspective, both issues will result in the same error: "Box Drive's system extension failed to load"
Currently, for customers running Big Sur (a supported OS) and not on a device running Apple's new M1 chip, we recommend enabling the system extension and rebooting as advised in the error message. In limited situations where this does not remediate the issue, we've seen some success with a command-line workaround suggested in this thread. However, please note that while this workaround may enable Box Drive, this is not a supported solution. A future update of the application that includes a permanent fix may encounter unknown issues for those that have implemented this workaround. With that said, our Engineers are looking into this issue with high priority and are working with all stakeholders to find a resolution for this quickly.
For customers on Apple’s new Silicon M1 chip, we are unfortunately unable to provide a similar workaround and do not, at present, support the devices on Box Drive. That said, our Engineering team is actively working to add support for the M1 chip on Box Drive. A Beta is planned in early 2021 for our Enterprise customers. Meanwhile, customers on these devices are encouraged to leverage our web-based application (https://app.box.com).
UPDATE (02/24/2021): We're excited to share that the Beta for Drive on M1 devices is now available for Enterprise customers. The Beta will be rolled out to enrolled Enterprise customers in phases. Please contact your Box Account Team for information regarding the Beta. Thanks for your patience as we worked to provide this support.
While we recognize this isn't the greatest news for some, we did want to provide some transparency and clarification. We have also added both of these issues to our Known Product Issues article. We thank you for your continued patience and active community engagement.
Best,
Brent (Director, Product Support)Comment actions -
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the Box Community!
Our engineering team is aware of this situation and continuously working for a fix.
In the meantime, please go ahead and submit your ticket about this issue to our support channel and click "Contact Support" just above this page to get direct assistance from our support teammates.
Appreciate all your patience and thanks for your understanding!
-
Some perspective from users:
- 150 days since Apple released a developer preview of Big Sur at WWDC
- 150 days since Apple offered a Developer Mac with Apple Silicon for development and testing
- 105 days since Apple released a public beta of Big Sur
- 7 days since Apple released Big Sur to all users
Box Drive still does not function on Big Sur properly to date.
-
Here's someone that fixed the problem 4 months ago. Use at your own risk!
-
So after some work on trying to find a fix I have found 2 possible way forward until Box issues a Apple Universal update:
1. The old app 'Box Sync' works perfectly fine on the M1 Mac (if you use this make sure to sync them from online)
or
2. Cloud Mounter is a paid app from the Mac App Store that works really well. Just log in with your box account and everything comes over. $13.99 for 3 months.
Using both currently and they both work great.
-
I have an intel Mac and had the same issue. I've managed to get Box Drive working by doing the following:
From what i can tell, the installer is trying to load the kext from/Library/Filesystems/box.fs/Contents/Extensions/11.0/osxfuse.kext. When it does that the Big Sur will throw an error (see attachment).
To fix this i copied the box.fs folder to/Library/Extensionsand rankextload /Library/Extensions/box.fs/Contents/Extensions/11.0/osxfuse.kext.
This brings up a dialog box asking you to approve the extension in System Preferences. Once approved, you'll be asked to reboot the machine.Box Drive works fine after that. From time to time you still get the 'box dialog box', but i'm guessing that's because app is hardcoded to look for a specific path. Would be interested to know if the above works for you as well.
I'd be interested to know if the a similar approach would work on M1 (you'll probably need rosetta installed as well). Hope this helps.
-
Rosetta doesn't support translation for kernel extensions: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_silicon/about_the_rosetta_translation_environment#3616845
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
228 comments