Box Drive's system extension failed to load

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Regina Marie Henson - depro on 05-13-2021

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

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317 comments

Date Votes
  • Official comment
    rmashintchian
    • Edited
    We are excited to announce that we have released a Public Beta of Box Drive that is compatible with new Apple devices with M1 chips today.  Any Box user can access this without signing the Master Beta Agreement.  To find out more information, including the installation and download instructions, please visit our community page.  
     
    We know that it's been extremely challenging and frustrating for many of you that we didn't have a compatible version of Box Drive on M1 devices previously.  We are truly sorry for all the inconvenience this has caused and we sincerely appreciate your patience as we've worked hard to get this general access for users.
      
    Please note that this Public Beta is based on Box Drive's existing architecture, which uses kernel extensions.  As such, it requires users to enable 'reduced security mode' and requires additional installation steps in order to run Box Drive on M1 devices.  Organizations that have MDM configured on their devices can follow these configuration steps to the ease installation steps for their users.  Later this year, we are planning to add support for a new version of Box Drive that will be built using Apple's File Provider Extension (FPE) APIs.  This new architecture provides a modern implementation that exists in user space with no kernel extensions, so users will not have to enable 'reduced security mode'.  It will also significantly streamline the install experience for Box Drive on M1 devices.
     
    Thank you again for all your patience.  We truly appreciate it.
     
    Best, 
    Rena
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  • Tony Hehr

    I have the same issue. MacBook Air, macOS Big Sur, M1 Chip.

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  • Adrienne Russell-George

    Same here...same computer as well. 

    6
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  • Curtis Frazier

    Same...Mac Mini.

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  • France
    • Edited

    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! 

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  • Eduardo Bodnariuc Fontes

    Same here. Frustrating...

    11
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  • Curtis Frazier

    Box had MONTHS to prepare for this...Box Tools is also not working for me.

    10
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  • RJ

    Same. MacBook Pro 16 i9, Big Sur

    3
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  • Gary Dulude

    Add me to the list. MacBook Air, macOS Big Sur, M1 chip. Box doesn't show up anywhere in those System Preferences to add it.

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  • Vasudha Bharadwaj

    Same here. Macbook Air, M1 chip, Big Sur, doesn't show in Security & Privacy settings to add it. Super frustrating.  

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  • Curtis Frazier

    It actually shows under extensions in system prefs now, but even with it checked, it does not resolve the issue.

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  • Curtis Frazier

    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.

    20
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  • Elliott Cobley

    Another frustrated person here to add to the list

    5
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  • Chris Schmalz

    Same issue.  Thank you for helping to fix.

    5
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  • Alejandro Pérez

    How many engineers and developers do you have 500, 1000? And new Mac laptops can not run BOX... come on!!!

    6
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  • Ni Rana

    This is ridiculous! I opened a ticket and they still have not replied back!!

    4
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  • Box User

    Just got the new MacBook Air, macOS Big Sur, M1 chip. I'm also getting the 'System Extension failed to load...' message. 

    3
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  • Zhuoqun Hu

    Same situation here.  Sad to see Box as a public company moves so slowly in supporting the newest devices.

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  • Ni Rana

    I ended up switching to Google Drive. Absolutely unacceptable for such a small issue to not be fixed before launch.

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  • Shaun August

    Here's someone that fixed the problem 4 months ago. Use at your own risk!

    https://github.com/slw07g/boxdrive-patch

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  • Daniel Feodoroff

    I can confirm after some digging in Box Drive code that the Box FUSE kernel extension is not updated to work on ARM architecture. 

    Therefore the fix @Shaun August shared will not work.

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  • Daniel Feodoroff

    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. 

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  • Tom Woolley
    • Edited

    Thanks for the link to cloud mounter Daniel.  Works very well (also doesn't seem to need a subscription for one connection?).

     

    Edit - ah, free for read only :(

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  • Tan Sharma

    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/Extensions and ran kextload /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.

     

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  • Tony Hehr

    I tried it. Got the following:

    Incompatible architecture: Binary is for x86_64, but needed arch arm64e

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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  • Tan Sharma
    • Edited

    looks like Box would need to release a universal binary. Rosetta wont be able to translate the kernel extension.

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  • Tony Hehr

    Yeah, I have rosetta installed and it did not attempt a translation when I tried to force load the extension via terminal. I don't know if that's a limitation on rosetta, or if there is a way I can force it.

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  • Tan Sharma

    Rosetta doesn't support translation for kernel extensions: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_silicon/about_the_rosetta_translation_environment#3616845

     

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  • Curtis Frazier

    Good call out Tan. A new kernel extension will be needed b Box.

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  • Tony Hehr

    Has anybody in this thread filed a ticket and gotten a meaningful response?

    I haven't tried.  My need isn't urgent; I figured I would let somebody else do the heavy lifting. 

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