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Box Desktop Application Update Behavior

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Box Drive

In-app Update Behavior

The following behavior applies to both Windows and Mac machines.
Update requirements:
  • You do not need administrator rights on the computer to use the update process.
Update process:
  1. When Box Drive launches, and approximately every four hours thereafter, Box Drive's update service (daemon on Mac) checks to see if a new version of Box Drive is available.
  2. If a new version is available, Box Drive's update service downloads the new version and prompts you to update to the latest version.
  3. After you accept the prompt to update, the new version is installed. More information on Box Drive update prompts. Additionally, if an update is available for you when Drive starts up, the system automatically applies the update. This is for Drive 2.2 and above (Mac) and 2.3 and above (Windows).

Manual Update Steps for End Users

  1. Quit Box Drive
  2. Download and run the appropriate installer to update to the latest version:
  3. Box Drive should launch itself after the update is installed.
Note Manually updating Box Drive requires you to have administrator rights on the computer.

Recommendations for IT administrators

IT administrators can use Box Drive's latest installers (links above) to mass update their endpoints. Installing the latest installer updates the Box Drive client to the latest version. The process to do this depends on the capabilities of your deployment tools.

IMPORTANT

For accounts using Box Drive 2.4 or later, to get an update you need only to mandate a machine reboot. Drive automatically updates during boot-up.

For accounts using Box Drive 2.3 or earlier, or if Drive isn't updating after the above, then follow the steps detailed below.
Note We recommend that you update Box Drive while users are not logged in to Windows so you do not need to force quit the Box Drive process. This may result in the loss of any active work your users had open. An example of how you can do this is detailed below.
For Windows Machines
  1. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, remove the entry for "Box"
    • Note This is only necessary in the case where the MSI is being executed on startup to prevent launching while updating. If you are updating on shutdown or the update is guaranteed to execute before anything under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run is executed (that is, before login) you can skip this step.
  2. Stage the latest version of Box Drive (For example, saving the .MSI in a created folder C:\ProgramData\Box\Box\Stage).
  3. Create a run.bat file in that directory with the following: 
    start /wait msiexec /i "C:\ProgramData\Box\Box\Stage\THE.NEW.MSI" /quiet /l*v "C:\ProgramData\Box\Box\Stage\THE.NEW.MSI.LOG"
  4. Create a group policy to run this .bat file on the next machine Startup.
  5. When the user reboots the machine after this Group Policy is applied, Box Drive updates.
For Macs
  1. Create file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.box.desktop.autoinstall.plist with contents: 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict>     <key>Label</key>     <string>com.box.desktop.autoinstall</string>     <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>     <true/>     <key>ProgramArguments</key>     <array>         <string>sh</string>         <string>-c</string>         <string>./com.box.desktop.autoinstall.sh</string>     </array>     <key>RunAtLoad</key>     <true/>     <key>WorkingDirectory</key>     <string>/Library/com.box.desktop.autoinstall</string>     <key>StandardOutPath</key>     <string>output.txt</string>     <key>StandardErrorPath</key>     <string>output.txt</string> </dict> </plist>
  2. Create file /Library/com.box.desktop.autoinstall/com.box.desktop.autoinstall.sh with contents: 
    set -ex if [ $UID != 0 ]; then  echo "Must be run as root."  exit 1 fi # Remove helper. Install may fail if Helper's launched after files are copied but before postinstall loads helper HELPER=/Library/LaunchAgents/com.box.desktop.helper.plist if [ -e $HELPER ]; then  echo "Removing helper"  rm -rf $HELPER fi # Remove Box.app so it doesn't launch on login causing install to fail APPPATH=/Applications/Box.app if [ -e $APPPATH ]; then  echo "Removing app"  rm -rf $APPPATH fi echo "Installing." installer -pkg Box.pkg -target / # If installed, remove launchd job so it doesn't run again if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then  rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.box.desktop.autoinstall.plist fi
  3. Move Box.pkg to /Library/com.box.desktop.autoinstall/Box.pkg
  4. Restart the computer. The new Box Drive version should be installed (and running if logged in)
  5. If there are any errors, check /Library/com.box.desktop.autoinstall/output.txt (and /var/log/install.log)

Related Links

 

Box Sync

In-app Update Behavior

The following behavior applies to both Windows and Mac machines.
Update requirements:
  • You must be logged into Box Sync.
  • You do not need administrator rights on the computer to use the update process.
Update process:
  1. When Box Sync launches, and approximately every four hours thereafter, Box Sync checks to see if a new version of Box Sync is available.
  2. If a new version is available, Box Sync's update service downloads and installs it. You do not need to click any prompts to update, but you may notice that Box Sync restarts during the update process. This restart does not affect the user experience.

Manual Update Steps for End Users

  1. Download and run the appropriate installer to update Box Sync:

Box Sync should start itself when the update completes.

Note Manually updating Box Sync requires you to have administrator rights on the computer.

Recommendations for IT administrators

IT administrators can use Box Sync's latest installers (links above) to mass update their endpoints. Installing the latest installer updates the Box Sync client to the latest version. The process to do this depends on the capabilities of your deployment tools.
Important Notes:
  • On Windows, you can use the NOEXPLORERRESTART=1 MSI installer flag to prevent the termination of Explorer.exe during the upgrade.
  • We do not recommend that you force quit the Box Sync process ("Box Sync.exe") as this may put Box Sync into an unrecoverable state and potentially result in data loss.
  • Running the latest .msi installer on a Windows 10 machine that already has the latest Box Sync version installed may result in a "The specified account already exists" error.

Related Links

 

Box Tools

Installation Types

In-app Update Behavior

The following behavior applies to both Windows and Mac machines.
Update Requirements
  • You must be logged into the Windows or Mac machine.
  • You do not need administrator rights on the computer to use the update process.
Update process:
  1. Approximately every five to six hours, the Box Tools' update service checks to see if a new version of Box Tools is available.
  2. If a new version is available, the Box Tools' update service downloads and installs it.

Manual Update Steps for End Users

  1. Verify which Box Tools installation type you are using by checking where your instance of Box Tools is installed.
  2. Download and run the latest per-user version installer.
  3. Box Tools should start itself when the update is complete.
Note The per-user version of Box Tools does not require the end user to have administrator rights to install or update.

Recommendations for IT administrators

IT administrators can use Box Tools' latest installers (links above) to mass update their endpoints. Installing the latest installer updates the Box Tools client to the latest version. The process to do this depends on the capabilities of your deployment tools.
Important Notes:
  • Machines that already have the per-user version of Box Tools installed should not have the machine-wide version deployed.
  • We do not recommend IT administrators attempt to mass update per-user installs of Box Tools.
  • For deployments for the machine-wide version of Box Tools, IT administrators can use Box Tools' .msi installer to mass update their endpoints.

Related Links

 

Box for Office

In-app Update Behavior

Update requirements:
  • You must be logged into Windows.
  • You do not need to be logged into Box for Office.
  • You do not need administrator rights on the computer to use the update process.
Update process:
  1. Approximately every five to six hours, Box for Office's update service checks to see if a new version of Box for Office is available.
  2. If a new version is available, the update service downloads and installs it.
  3. If a Microsoft Office application is running during this installation, Box for Office continues to run as the older version until the Microsoft Office application is closed.

Manual Update Steps for End Users

  1. Quit any running Microsoft Office programs: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook
  2. Download and run the latest installer.
  3. After the installation is complete, re-launch Microsoft Office, and if necessary log in to Box for Office.

Recommendations for IT administrators

IT administrators can use Box for Office's latest installer to mass update their endpoints. Installing the latest installer updates the Box for Office client to the latest version. The process to do this depends on the capabilities of your deployment tools.
Important Notes:
  • If the end user has Microsoft Office programs running, the old version of Box for Office continues to run until the Microsoft Office programs are restarted.
  • On Windows 10, running the latest .msi installer when the latest version of Box for Office is already installed will result in a "The specified account already exists" error.

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