Box Drive has constant Syncing problems
My design team (all on Macs) is constantly having syncing problems. Some files are syncing fine, others not at all. And there is no explanation as to why. Also, the icons showing what is syncing and what is not, are not very intuitive. A cloud with a dotted line is not syncing, the ones with no cloud are fine, and the ones with an arrow are on box. This is becoming a nightmare where we are constantly having to double-check everything so we can work on files seamlessly. We are beyond frustrated.
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Hi Sabrina,
Welcome to the Box Community, I'm happy to help!
This would be something our Product Support team would like to investigate and may require specific account information.
I've gone ahead and created a ticket for you so that an agent can work directly with you on looking into this.
Kindly check your email for details and updates.
Please come back and let us know how things go with support!
Regards,
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Box "customer success" responded to my multiple inquiries and this is their response.
In regard to the 0bytes in box.com and the cloud with the exclamation point I can confirm that we have received reports of additional instances of this behavior, and this issue is currently under investigation by our engineering team.
In our team's initial review of this behavior, we have been able to see that this issue may be related to a bug with Mac OS/Finder.
With this specific issue, our Box Drive team is continuing to collaborate with our partners at Apple to further isolate the root cause of this issue and any portion of this behavior that may be attributed to Mac OS. As we continue to understand and address this behavior, as a workaround we would recommend to use a workflow where files are saved locally on the device, then moved or drag-and-dropped via Box Drive or Box.com.
I understand this is not the most favorable workflow but it is what is recommended while the investigation is on going."0byte files" refers to random files uploading with zero bytes of data. And the "cloud with the exclamation point" refers to random files being marked as "File does not exist" even though I can open the file on my computer, but the same file won't sync using box drive.
Basically, if you have a mac, box drive is not reliable. Which in my opinion means they shouldn't be offering it as a service. My team has lost files and spent too many hours trying to resolve this issue. -
Same issue here. Files we update in the web app are not getting synched down to our devices. This includes changes made within Box Drive which get uploaded correctly to the web app but then are not consistently getting downloaded to other users' Box Drive folders. I originally thought the issue was related to the new Office desktop co-authoring feature but it's broader than that. This is happening across all users, all devices (Win10, Win11, MacOS), on various networks (corporate office, homes, hotspots) and with Box Drive 2.27 and 2.28. I even tested it on a personal laptop using our corporate box account and with a personal account and had the same issues. Manual folder refresh is the workaround but that's not a good long term solution.
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I have the same problem and am also a Mac user (Macbook Air running Monterey 12.4).
I became a Box user in May this year (2022). Ever since, I have had problems with some files not synching. Either they appear in Box online, but not my Box Drive or vice versa. There was no obvious pattern. Note: this was before co-authoring was introduced so it's nothing to do with that.
After having a ticket with Box Support for months, I finally got advice that the problem was caused by putting Box in my 'Favourites' (a pretty obvious thing for any Mac user I would have thought). I removed Box from Favourites, de-installed Box Drive and re-installed it and everything seemed to work fine.
Shortly after, I went on two months leave and did not use my work laptop at all and therefore did not use Box Drive. It appears that everything that was created or updated by my colleagues in Box during my absence isn't synched to Box Drive on my laptop. I've tried quitting and restarting.
Box Support wouldn't accept my reply to the previous support ticket as it had been closed so now I have to go through the process of trying to work out how to submit a new ticket - support.box.com doesn't make this easy - all I can find are forums, hence the reply here.
Seems like Box doesn't really support Mac users. Unfortunately there aren't many of us at my workplace so my issues aren't regarded as high priority.
I've seen references here to 'manual folder refresh' but I don't know how to do that. It's a bandaid not a fix, but better than nothing if someone can post instructions on how to do this.
Glad to find I am not alone in the general world of Box Drive users :-)
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As of today, I'm still not seeing a fix for this issue. If so, can someone direct me there? I'm so over editors calling me to tell me a file is not there or showing 0k on Box.com but I can see the updated, fixed file on BOX drive.
I've had to open BOX drive and drag the file over to Box.com just to make it sync. We have been losing valuable time and the cost for lost or missing files because of the sync issue is adding up.
Working on MacBook Pro-Ventura 13.2.1
Indesign 18.1
BOX drive 2.30.88 -
Jeff and others, I don't have a fix but I do have a workaround following my earlier post. And I discovered it myself not through Box Support.
I uninstalled and reinstalled Box Drive and that resolved my problem. It hasn't occurred again since.
I don't regard this as a satisfactory situation and raised a support ticket with Box to ask them to look into why files stop syncing, but they closed it because I couldn't show them a current example. I am not confident that Box are looking into this issue.
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Susan,
I've been having to log out and log back into BOX drive almost daily. I've also been uninstalling and installing the app almost weekly.
The other day I couldn't get anything to sync on BOX drive unless I had BOX.com open and signed in to that too.
My co-workers are also having major sync problems. They will save something to BOX drive but when you open BOX.com the name of the document is there but shows 0k. (or the dreaded empty cloud which iconically makes no sense).
We have worked with our IT and it does not appear to be an in-house internet, network or firewall issue. Same results when working remotely.
Thanks for the idea though. Misery loves company. However, this issue is really starting to tax patience not to mention losing time and money because of this.
The problem does seem to happen far more frequently with Mac users here than it does with Windows users. But it does happen on the PC side so again, a BOX issue. -
New info: This will need to be confirmed but it appears the latest version of BOX Drive for Mac is still Intel based.
Version 2.30.88 is set up for M1 Macs. I completely uninstalled BOX drive and am now trying the 2.30.88 version to see if it cleans up any sync issues.
Seems weird that an updated version would not be set up for M1 but the other Mac users in our building seem to find it a bit more stable at the moment. -
Hi Jeff,
I've got into the habit of keeping Box online open all the time - mainly because I had syncing problems from the first and at least that allowed me to see files and folders added or updated by my colleagues.
Another thing I forgot to mention. After weeks of back and forth with Box support, I was finally told that dragging Box into my Favourites in Finder would cause a problem. Box automatically sets up a folder under Locations (I hadn't even noticed it). Since I got rid of Box in Favourites I've had fewer problems
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