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
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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 (03/12/2021): Thank you to the Enterprise customers who enrolled in the Private Beta for Drive on M1 devices. We are no longer accepting new enrollments at this time as our teams prepare next steps to support further launch activities. 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) -
It's nice to finally get an official statement. I think it is also fair to point out that it was announced almost a year ago that kernel extensions would be deprecated in Big Sur. Even though Apple walked this back the development path should have been clear. It's my understanding that Apple uses box internally (at least that was one of the ways it was sold to me). It's tough to be told that box is the Apple friendly dev and then be told to use the web interface for three months while they sort out the technical issues of basing their mac integration on an open source library that box does not appear to be contributing to.
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I finally gave up on Box. It's not like this is a one-off, it happens every time there's a MacOS release. It breaks Box and takes many months for them to address it. They have plenty of notice these releases are coming, and I'm sure they have access (as do I) to download pre-release versions and ensure compatibility with the release.
Moved everything to Onedrive, which consistently works fine, presumably as it doesn't skirt around the way the OS works.
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I've tested this a number of times and have found 2 main scenarios :
1) Upgrade machine that has Box installed to macOS 11
- post upgrade Box still works - this is most likely because the kext is already loaded pre-upgrade and that state is preserved. As such the system allows the kext to be used when called by the application.
worth noting, if the kext is unloaded from the system post upgrade for any reason you'll end up with the same issue as 22) Clean install of Box on macOS 11 consistently fails to launch
- you get a notification to say you need to "Allow" the extension in Security & Preferences but there is nothing to allow. This is because the extension isnt actually loaded. If you try and load the extension manually (CLI), the system will tell's you that you're trying to load the extension from the wrong place. The OS expects the extensions to be in specific (pre-defined) directories.
You can get the application to work by copying the kext to one of these locations and loading it manually, however this isn't an official fix.
Box's claim that it's working on Big Sur (Intel mac's) as expected seems to be exaggerated. What I don't get is why it's so hard for them to release a patch, we've demonstrated a potential "quick fix" in this very thread. -
Good to finally have some updates, and good to know that the Box management team completely ignores the Mac system even though the new architecture was announced 5 months before the consumer laptop was out. The management team could've allocated much more resources on this transition so that fewer people would even think about moving to other services. I already did and probably won't look back.
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For anyone who tried the 'fix' on their intel Mac (https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360051323454/comments/360013689894) :
Just to confirm that the 'fix' survives os updates - just updated to RC 11.1 and although Box complains about not being able to load the extension (because theirs is in the wrong directory), the extension actually loads.
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Hi Tan Sharma,
Thanks for sharing. I was trying the 'fix' earlier, but it failed to work on my MacBook 2020 (Intel CPU). First, I got this error:
Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/box.fs/Contents/Extensions/11.0/osxfuse.kext
Insufficient permissions for action: Unable to load 'com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID' in unprivileged request.Then I tried the same command with sudo, but got a different error:
Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/box.fs/Contents/Extensions/11.0/osxfuse.kext
Validating extension failed: KernelExtension com.box.filesystems.osxfuse v313.10.2 in executable kext bundle com.box.filesystems.osxfuse at /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext:Filesystem error: Invalid ownership (501:20) should be (0:0) on /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext
Filesystem error: Invalid ownership (501:20) should be (0:0) on /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext/Contents
Filesystem error: Invalid ownership (501:20) should be (0:0) on /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature
Filesystem error: Invalid ownership (501:20) should be (0:0) on /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources
Filesystem error: Invalid ownership (501:20) should be (0:0) on /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext/Contents/MacOS
Filesystem error: Invalid ownership (501:20) should be (0:0) on /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext/Contents/MacOS/osxfuse
Filesystem error: Invalid ownership (501:20) should be (0:0) on /private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging/com.box.filesystems.osxfuse.I7VRR8/osxfuse.kext/Contents/Info.plist
Kernel request failed: (libkern/kext) not loadable (reason unspecified) (-603946989)I must admit I'm no expert, so I don't know if this is a trivial error relating to file permissions?
Thanks :-)
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Hi Søren Riis Mønsted
That is most certainly a permissions issue. The first user created on a Mac gets the UID 501, which is most likely your account. The second part '20' is the group id for staff, which your account would be part off.
You'll need to make sure that the extension is owned by 'root'
Navigate to Library/Extensions and then run the following:
sudo chown -R root:wheel box.fs
When prompted for a password, enter the password for your account. The above line recursively sets the ownership for the 'box.fs' folder and all its contents to root:wheel. Now run the kext load command again:
sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/box.fs/Contents/Extensions/11.0/osxfuse.kext
If all goes well, you should see a prompt and an Allow option in System Preferences. -
@David, The issue is recognised here: https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045231753-Known-Product-Issues
Both links in the blurbs below - point back to this forum post.Box Drive and macOS Big Sur Temporary Incompatibility
Our engineering team is investigating an issue when installing Box Drive on a Mac running macOS Big Sur, where some users may receive an error message that reads “Box Drive’s system extension failed to load." Further detail can be found in our Box Community forum post on this topic.
Box Drive and Apple Silicon (M1 Chip) Macs Temporary Incompatibility
The current version of Box Drive is not supported on Apple Silicon Macs (devices with the new M1 chip from Apple). This issue will be fixed in a future release to support both Intel-based, and M1-based Mac machines. Further detail can be found in our Box Community forum post on this topic.
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I've been successfully able to install Box on a Intel Big Sur machine. It's running as it should too.
I decided to install version. 2.17.176 and I pre-load a configuration profile on the machine. None the less, the trick is now we have to restart the machine after a fresh install and then the Kext / System Extensions load as they should.
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Just installed Box Drive update (2.19.292) and it completely broke my Box install. I'm on an Intel MacBook Pro running Big Sur. The installation guide dialog says "Please enable the Box system extension in System Preferences" and then provides some meaningless steps.
Bottom line, there is no longer a Box system extension to be found in the Security and Privacy Prefs.
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@Tan Sharma,
I just verified and made sure there were not remnants of the product left behind after an uninstall.
Just tried a fresh install via a policy and installed as it should. Yes, I got he pop-up about needing Kext Loading so I quit and restarted the machine as it specified. At next login, the Box Login Window was ready to go.
I rebuilt my package as below.
DM
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@David , that's interesting. That isn't working for us as the kext is located within /Library/Filesystems/box.fs ....
KEXT load for the native app fails as it needs to be referenced from one of the following directories in Big Sur:
- /System/Library/Extensions
- /Library/Apple/System/Library/Extensions
- /Library/Extensions
- /AppleInternal/Library/Extensions
- /System/AppleInternal/Library/AuxiliaryExtensions
- /System/AppleInternal/Diagnostics/AuxiliaryExtensions
- /System/Library/AuxiliaryExtensions
- /Library/StagedExtensions
If you disregard the Apple and System specific directories - SIP might cause issues down the line, the best places to load the kext from would be
- /Library/Extensions
- /Library/StagedExtensions
Do you get any output if you run: kextfind -b com.box.filesystems.osxfuse -print
This should tell you where the kext is being loaded from, but I get a null output.
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Thanks, that's good to know. I have box drive working on my intel machine, but like you get a null output for that command. If I run kextstat | grep -v com.apple, the only non-apple kext is com.box.filesystems.osxfuse
I've tested the latest downloads and have the same issue on clean installs of Big Sur. We've had to ask our users to either stay on Catalina and use the Box Drive app, or upgrade and switch to the web portal. Isn't going to be straightforward when our M1 shipment arrives.
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