Box Drive vs Box Sync
I got the press release for Box Drive today and am really sad to see that this is supposed to be replacing Box Sync. The functionality of Sync is exactly there reason I use Box - I really do not want cloud storage, I want our files on our computers not in the cloud because most of the time we do not have active internet connections. Rest assured that I will be porting my business back to Dropbox.
Jamie
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Hi ,
Thanks for your post.
I want to help clarify the Box Drive vs Box Sync situation. Yes you are correct that Box Drive will ultimately replace Box Sync, but that is only until we have the Mark for Offline option available and released with Box Drive in the future.
We understand the different use cases of having content locally saved on your machines and that's why we will continue to support Box Sync and Box Drive until mark for offline is available for Box Drive.
Hope you understand the timing and roadmap plan of Box Drive and Box Sync, but please continue to use Box Sync if you still need to have contented synced for offline use for now (3/29/18).
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So any ETA on "mark-for-offline" for Box Drive ?
As we all know Box Sync is a mess and corrupts heavily on Mac OS, so a quick release would be very welcome.(I moved to Box Drive just to fix/circumvent multiple Box Sync issue, but offline access is crucial, since not always connected)
#boxdrive #sync -
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I am no fan of Box Sync and will be happy to see the end of it, but I take issue with your statement that "Box Sync is a mess and corrupts heavily on Mac OS". I have used it on Mac OS for many years and when used properly I've never really had any problems with it.
As the administrator of an enterprise with over 100K users, I've seen many reports of problems with it from both my Mac and Windows users over the years. Generally the problems have stemmed from misuse of Sync rather than inherent problems with Sync. That's why I want to see it go. Most users don't care to learn what is for and how it should be used. You could argue that Box should have planned for people to misuse it, but I'm not ready to shift all of the blame on them.
To my knowledge Box has not set a date for v2 of Box Drive, but pushing for "a quick release" might get you a product that is a mess and corrupts heavily on Mac OS. Box has no shortage of requests for this feature. I'm sure they are working hard on it. I, for one, do not want them to release it quickly. I want them to release it when its ready.
Best,
Bob
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Hello,
So far in January 2019, Box Drive is far from offering the same functions as Box Sync for our company. What is missing ?
- option to set box in a specific location in disk partition (e.g. D drive for data in a PC)
- option to have data offline without limit (now it is 25Gb)
If Box sync is depreciated before Box drive gets the 2 functions above, the additional box drive functions will NOT retain our company within Box system and we will have to move to company with regret.
Best
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I agree. Also, if you have directory trees that have hundreds or thousands of file folders in them, Box Drive forces you to hunt through them. I am not interested in scrolling forever. Yes, you can work off line but you still see all the tree entries - including those you don't need. This very poorly executed. Why not allow the existence on the same machine? Don't have them using the same Box folder. It is clear that they have modeled this after Microsoft. Once again, the classic case of people who do not use the product making decisions that make the end user walk away.
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Limitations on search on Mac
One of the greatest advantages of the Mac Finder is it's ultrafast and powerful Spotlight search. When you use Box Sync the Box folder is just a normal folder as far as Finder is concerned and can be searched with all speed and functionality of Spotlight. The Box Folder on Box Drive on the other hand does not link to the Spotlight index and search is severely limited. This limits the usability of Box.
Box could make our life easier by adding core search functionalities to Box Drive
- Limit search to a subfolder
- Introduce advanced search criteria, like file type, date range, etc.
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Hi ,
Thanks for posting your feedback!
I linked your post to this suggestion on our Box Pulse site: https://pulse.box.com/forums/909778/suggestions/35983096
If you'd like to add more detail, or add another suggestion for our Box product teams, feel free to post your feedback to Box Pulse directly.
Thanks again for posting in the Box Community!
-Scott
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Wait until you try to search a directory structure for a specific file or file type...it only searches the directory highlighted and not any sub-directories. So, if you have a complex tree with a lot of files, you'll have to individually search directories. Also, forget about searching content of files. Sync did all of these. Drive is a major step backwards and will have a huge adverse impact to my work.
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I can't believe Drive is meant to replace Sync. It's bad enough that you cannot see previews (that alone basically kills functionality for us) but unbelievably, the Finder searcha function we used constantlyturns up zero results. Box lists this as a "known issue" and tells you to use the Box Drive search instead. But the Box Drive search function is flat-out useless because you cannot narrow the search to a specific folderit searches the entire Box of THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF DOCUMENTS. Am I missing some setting that allows you to narrow the search?
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I'm still evaluating it but, https://www.odrive.com appears to be a work-around if you use it instead of Box Drive. It allows you to search child directories and content of files synced to your drive. It also shows previews. Downside is it is $99/year. I'm still testing and looking to see if there are other solutions out there. Does anyone know of other products or critiques of odrive?
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Hi all,
It seems that like a lot of people, I have decided to heavily use box.com thanks to Box Sync: capability to work on local filesystem, with all benefit it has, while having document synchronized in the cloud, opening in Box.com when working together with other people on documents.
I had to reinstall my laptop, I was happy to have all my data safe on box. I saw that Box Sync would be removed to the benefit of Box Drive, so installed it.
What Box Drive is missing:
Inclusion in OS, Windows 10 (don't know about MacOS ..), especially search capacity (it's one of the criteria that evaluates a "good" OS if I am not mistaking).Bandwidth: Compression of same directory took 2x more time on Box Drive folder than NTFS
Latency: Some actions of the applications (installed locally with data on Box) were instant with sync and now taking ~5 seconds (switching tab on a terminal for example). I don't say these application are well written either...
Please do not sunset Sync until these elements are fixed.
I believe the only two "issues" I have been facing with sync was the inability to know when a file/directory would be processed and some "FileName (mailaddress)" which would appear from time to time.
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Hi !
Welcome to the Community! I want to thank you for an extremely insightful and detailed post. Posts like yours really help us understand the difficulties users face when switching from Box Sync to Box Drive!
Ive gone ahead and captured your feedback to Box Pulse for our product teams. There is discussion on the following suggestion (which I linked your post to) that might be relevant to your experience:
If youd like to provide additional information about your experience, please feel free to post your feedback directly on Box Pulse.
Again, thank you for your excellent contribution to the Community!
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It is with great sadness that the support of Box Sync started and then I could not get follow up.
Then, in stepped in BOX DRIVE.
Since installing BOX DRIVE again and again I have had the WIFI drop on my MAC. It drops in such a way as to force a reboot to get the available WIFI list to appear. Not even a REBOOT work. Only a shutdown and restart.
To make sure it wasn't a system related problem, I set up an new USER profile, I operated for a full day without losing the WIFI connections. THEN, once i opened BOX, within about 3 minutes the WIFI connection was lost.
I removed box from the profile and no issues with WIFI for the last hour.
ADD TO THAT the problem with BOX DRIVE being completely unsearchable from the MAC and the online search of BOX DRIVE is very very slow and not efficient or thorough at all.
THIS IS NOT A GOOD OPTIONS.
Basically, as I can figure it out, BOX is an Alias. My files are not "truly" on my local machine anymore. I have not idea how many files are now lost. THIS HAS NOT BEEN A GOOD WEEK. I get many error messages when it comes to moving files and downloading takes an enormously long period of time.
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Couldn't agree more. I use Spotlight and other tools (Alfred App) for searching for and launching folders files every minute (plus searching content). Not only that, but Box Drive limits the amount of space you can offload for local use; Box Sync has no limits--you decide how much or little of your full box account to make available on your local machines. If you have 300 GB of data that you need immediate access to all of the time (as I do), Box Sync will give you this access, but Box Drive won't.
Please don't deprecate Box Sync for those users whose workflow would be seriously impaired by Box Drive.
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I have a different issue from most. I work in a huge organization and have thousands of folders shared with me. The beauty of Box Sync was that I could designate only those (few) folders I needed offline access to, and my Finder navigation wasn't cluttered with all the rest. With Box Drive, it looks like the only option is for the Box Drive file structure to include EVERYTHING. Now, my workflow on my computer is a mess... I can't find anything without knowing it's title and using search. With Box Sync, I could navigate the folder hierarchy to find things.
Is there a way with Box Drive to limit the folders (and items) that show up on my local machine, and keep the complexity up in the Cloud?
Thanks,
Phil
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Hi ,
Welcome to the Box Community and thanks for your first post in the forum!
There isn't a way to limit the folders (and items) that show up on Box Drive on your local machine as what Box Drive does is basically mirror your folder structure in Box.com down to your computer.
There is however, an existing feature request to Hide folders from Box Drive in Box Pulse that our product team is researching on. If you and other members would like to support this suggestion, please feel free to go to the link above to up-vote and continue the discussion.
Again, thank you for posting!
Be sure to read our guidelines, Subscribe to content you like, and complete your profile on the community.
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How does Box Pulse help us, is it free to us? It seems like in order for us to have the some of the functionality users like in Box Sync we have to pay for another add-on to get it. It seems like instead keeping what worked in Box Sync and adding new features to enhance our productivity in Box Drive, Box has taken features to monetize them else where. As much as I like Box the 25GB offline content maximum, Mac Finder search issues and additional cost may sway many of the users to explore other options.
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Have you by any chance figured out a way of using Alfred with Box?
? - Adding Box.com as a search URL to ALfred's workflows.
? - Using a 3rd party app such as StorageMadeEasy to sync certain folders which Spotlight/Alfred can index and search.
? - Custom API integration with Box.com to search for files on the backend.
? - Using a WYSIWYG Automation tool such as Zapier or IFTT to integrate Alfred with Box.com.
The ability to index the files and folders on MacOS to reference whats on Box doesnt even need to be integrated in Box's official application, this is low-hanging fruit for a savvy dev to create a slick lightweight application specific to Box, allowing for a beautiful minimalist GUI based search tool. MacOS has tons of development libraries and options that can be utilized. If you can see a file, access a file, configure Box Drive to "Make Available Offline" THEN just have a hotkeyed app like Alfred or Spotlight to search it, all of our problems will be solved.
I went as far as obtaiing quotes from Enterprise Search providers, however, most are web based, the opposite of what we want (in this thread).
This was important enough for me to take the type and type all this out. ?
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Basically I trust box to do things well, but from the very first announcement, I've been confused about Box Drive.
I've used Box Sync for a very long time. I like that anything that I put in the C:\users\[me]\BoxSync folder on my Surface device will be instantly available on my phone and tablet via the Box apps. Really that's the main thing.
Is that exact capability provided by Box Drive? (That's just an opening question. There my be additional ones.)
As a side comment, I went searching for third party commentary and recommendations. They are few and far between and I didn't think they had a good understanding anyway. One even said, " Box was built from the ground up for business and is not the right choice for individuals." I'm an individual and Box has fit my needs better than any alternative I've run into.
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I've been a Box user for over a decade now. All the way back to whenever it was they were giving free 50GB lifetime accounts for being an early adopter so probably well longer than 10 years. I've never tried to use Box Drive in place of Box Sync and after reading this thread I'm glad I haven't wasted my time with it. I've always used Box Sync across multiple desktop and mobile OS's and have never and I really mean never, had a problem or any corruption with it.
So.. all that said. I am hopeful that Box Sync never goes away. Maybe it sunsets and goes into an unsupported state but based on what I've learned here today, I think I'd be perfectly fine with that as long as I can keep using the sync app I have installed across my various systems :). Aside from Google Drive, Box with Box Sync is the only other cloud storage & sync service that is so easy to use that you really don't have to think about it. Box Drive sounds like a huge move in the wrong direction for longtime Box Sync users ?
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so, this post is now trending appr 1 per month.
where is box on this? any update?
with the new and here to stay WFH initiatives, seems like this topic is more important than ever.
is there a diagram somewhere that can explain all this simply?
we need remote users logged into the same 'servers' or specific project folders - basic stuff, nothing fancy.
need to locate box/drive on a d:/ drive at a few locations due to storage size - or, should all content just move to box and synch what you need? oops - there it is again....synch.
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Mac user. I agree with the comments above. I have used Box Sync for years and it has performed really well for providing online backup access to my files (which I typically access on my laptop as I don't always have wifi). Installed Drive and Uninstalled sync. I agree that the crippled search capabilities make the product nearly unusable as a serious backup product. I could also not get it to sync my desktop folder. Reinstalled Sync. I really hope they don't retire Sync before Drive has equivalent capabilities, otherwise I would have to let our organization admin know that the product does not meet my needs.
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I'd prefer not to have to migrate to DropBox, but that would be my best alternative option if Box Drive can't keep up with Sync and no longer does what it was designed to do.
I love BoxSync's capabilities. Indispensable for individual and collaborative work. We have the enterprise version.
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