After Migration, Your Box Account Must Stay Empty

The information in this article applies to Stanford University Box only. It does not apply to Stanford Medicine Box. 

As first announced almost three years ago, Stanford University will retire the Box service in early 2023. Since last February, UIT has been migrating data stored in Box to alternative storage options such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. These migrations have now been completed for almost everyone. (If you’re unsure if your content has migrated, please scroll down for more information.)

However, reports show that a few individuals who previously had no content stored in Box — or whose content was migrated — have added data to their Box accounts.

If you worked in your Box account after your migration was completed, you need to manually move any content you want to keep to another storage option as soon as possible to avoid having it permanently deleted.

Here’s how:

Download files and folders from Box, then either:

• Upload files and folders to Google Drive, or
• Upload files and folders to OneDrive

Update external sharing links

In preparation for the upcoming sunset of the Box service, remember to review your websites for hyperlinks that point to Stanford Box content and make any needed updates. Learn more about updating external links.

Not sure if your content was migrated?

You should have received multiple emails to let you know your Box content migrated. However, there are a few actions you can take if you are not sure.

• Search for a folder called “BoxMigration” in your Google My Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. If you find it, you’ll know your content was migrated.
• Search Google Shared drives for a drive with the prefix “BOX_” followed by your workgroup name to confirm that your workgroup content has migrated.
• Contact your local IT support team or submit a Help request to UIT.

Moving away from Box

Stanford Box is a cloud-based file-sharing solution provided by the university. Box changed its contractual offering and dramatically raised prices. Additionally, Stanford offers other document management solutions that have similar capabilities as Box and can integrate with productivity tools already used by the university. Streamlining our file-sharing options will help the university reduce expenses while simplifying collaboration.

Learn more

• Stanford University Box Migration Project
• Box Migration FAQs