Before You Migrate
A pre-migration guide for moving out of Stanford University Box
How to prepare for the change
You're strongly encouraged to take the following steps before your scheduled migration to ensure a smooth transition.
Clean up your content
- Search your Box content to identify the files that you own.
- Delete files that you no longer need.
- Files that are no longer useful to you may be appropriate for the Stanford Archives, which collects materials of enduring historical value. Learn more about materials of particular interest to the archives.
Update Box links
- Locate Box file links or embeds that you have shared publicly on a website or other content-sharing platforms.
- For more detailed instructions, refer to the UIT news article: Update External Sharing Links Before Your Box Migration.
Review sharing permissions
- Remove yourself from shared files and folders to which you no longer need access.
- Remove collaborators who no longer need access to content shared by you.
- Accept any pending collaboration requests, as these will not transfer.
Communicate with collaborators
- Permissions for files and folders shared with Stanford collaborators will be copied over. Let your collaborators know they'll need to access the files in a new location.
- Permissions for files and folders shared with people outside of Stanford won't be copied over. Re-share your files and folders with external collaborators after your migration is complete.
Capture Box comments
- Comments made through the Box user interface will not be preserved.
- To retain comments, cut and paste them into a Google or Word doc.
Change file ownership, if needed
If the owner of a file is no longer in your department, ownership must be changed before migration. If the owner is still a Stanford employee, you should ask the current owner to change ownership (do not change to co-owner). If the owner has left Stanford:
- If you are listed as an editor, you can request owner permission by submitting a Help request.
- If you are not at least an editor, you'll need to obtain a signoff from the Privacy Office, or a written request from the person who owns the file (and has left Stanford.)
Frequently Asked Questions
To learn more about why we're transitioning away from Stanford University Box, and what you can expect before, during, and after the process, review our FAQs.
Get help
If you have questions, please submit a Help request. If you have questions about your migration schedule or should you not be able to access your content as expected, please contact your local IT support team.
