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No indexing in Windows 10

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Sean Mitchell

Hi, My Box folder and its contents are not picked up by the indexing in Windows 10 that makes all my other folders searchable.  No search results show up for the context of Box and there does not seem to be an option anywhere obvious to make the folder searchable.  Does anyone have insight on how to fix this? Thanks, Sean

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Comments

16 comments

Date Votes
  • France

    Hi Sean, 

    Welcome to the Box Community!

    It's expected that Windows search tools such as Cortana or File Explorer search do not return Box Drive results.

    You will need to use Box Drive's search tool instead to search contents.

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  • Sean T Mitchell

    Thanks, France. Is there a way to change that? It really limits usability in a number of ways. I appreciate any suggestions.

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  • Mirela Mustacevic

    Hi, I´ve tried Search with Box Drive but still the content is not found. What needs to be done in order to have full content search option available in BOX?

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  • John Grummitt

    Hey guys... France has let you in on the secret: Box refuses to allow Windows to index its contents. They've come up with the super useful keystroke of ALT+SHIFT+CTRL+B to allow you the joy of searching in the Box search 

    What France won't tell you is why "you will need to use" the crummy interface Box provides in comparison to the huge range of search options Windows Explorer provides.

    As she says Sean "Welcome to the Box Community!" - you've just discovered how uneasy it is to use as a storage solution! Happy holidays.

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  • thibaud

    I was forced to switch from Linux to Windows because of the lack of support for Linux. Now I see a flaw in Windows support. Very desapointing.

     

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  • Rafael Favila

    Not useful. Box's search tool is useful for online files, but I expect Windows Search to be able to index the files on my hard drive (like Box Sync used to let me). As it is this greatly restricts my interaction with my own files, not good.

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  • Michael McBride

    This has driven me nuts.. seriously. Seemed to work ok on Box Sync but Box Drive is 2 steps back.

    As a work around in order to use File Explorer to search box you can try these steps which worked for me.

    1) Create a batch file with commands like below. All they do is create a mapped drive for a Box folder, in my case Drive N and BoxFolder - MyProjects.

    @echo OFF
    @echo Creating Mapped drive for My Projects
    @echo %~dp0

    SUBST N: /D
    echo "%~dp0\~My Projects\"
    pushd "%~dp0\~My Projects"
    SUBST N: .
    popd
    @Echo DONE
    @ECHO ON

     

    Make sure the Bat file is in the Root of the folders you want to map.

    2) Double click it to ensure it creates a Drive N. Go to N and you should be able to search all the folders in the normal way. Note you will not see any of the Box Drive Icons... I couldnt get this to work but at least its simple for searching

    3) Open Windows schedule and create a task to run the Batch file on Login/

     

    Hope this works Micko

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  • Doug Johnson

    I also want to search files in box drive.  I used the suggestion by Michael McBride to use a batch file that creates a mapped drive.  The mappped drive was searchable.  But I could not add it to the indexing locations so the search is very slow.  Any ideas?  I am considering using a syncing program to create an identical area on my hard drive that I would only use for searching.  

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  • Itzik Bruchim

    Still no change.

    This is a terrible "feature", I want to be able to search files content in my windows folder, and not with Box search, which is just no good.

    If I have text in multiple files it is agonizing to open all of them.

    Please fix it.

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  • Doug Johnson

    I am still waiting for this function as well.  I used the search app Everything for a while, but an update in Box broke that option as well.  I will need to check Dropbox.  Seems like their folders are searchable in file explorer.

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  • Ben Bivas

    Also still waiting. Quite a struggle without.
    Would make work a lot easier not having to search the entire Box folder.

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  • christian steinway

    Unbelievable... what a pain the *(%*&. No listening to the customer here. 

    I'll go back to DropBox then. Idiots. 

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  • oscar jager
    • Edited

    What a bummer. I'm checking for a new cloud file service for my company and this is one of the key functions always needed. You normally work with the file explorer and from there you want to do your full text search. Too bad, looking further and no box.com then. 

    Btw, the online version is not providing full text search. So basically you can't do any full text search it looks like

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  • Henry Wythe

    Agreed. Hard to believe they think their crummy search box is a replacement for Windows search. We have been looking for an enterprise-class cloud file storage system. Box has all the features except search of synced folders. It's an absolute deal killer. IMO the Box management is stupid beyond belief.

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  • Pete Pollard
    • Edited

    I am so sick of this. I switched from Box Sync to Box Drive because of prompting from Box that it is superior, but basic functionality has disappeared, such as the ability to SEARCH and the ability to host the synchronised files ON ANY OTHER DISK THAN C. Time to look elsewhere. 
    Does anyone have any good suggestions about alternatives for Box for Windows?

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  • Grant Elledge

    Here to add that this is still an issue! Can you please work on this?

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