Admin's Guide to Box Backup

4 Dec 2023

4 min read

Sudhakar Madhineni

Box is a company that uses cloud technology to help other organizations streamline collaboration, content management, file transfer/storage, and security compliance, allowing clients to do more with less. Multiple industries, and 68% of Fortune 500 companies rely on Box to help them work more efficiently.

This article will explore the importance of backing up Box files and retention of files, the ways they can be done, as well as the limitations inherent in these options. The article will also cover third-party pros and cons of backing up data, as well as frequently asked questions.

Before this, however, it is important to understand the difference between data retention and backing up files. Data (or native) retention is a way for an organization to save data/files they need, but only for a certain period, and is usually for legal reasons. Backing up data/files also saves critical information, but it creates and updates copies of these files that can be referred to in the future, in the case of an unfortunate event, such as a data breach or malfunction.

It is also important to save data because many organizations that store data take no responsibility for data theft or loss.

However, services like Box have native options to backup or retain files, as well as work with third parties to accomplish the same goals.

1. Native Options for Retention

Box Governance

A feature that allows you to create retention policies and apply them to Box data, which will save data for a user-set period. Once the time is up, the data can be removed/deleted. This customizable retention is designed so that the data is still accessible for however long it needs to be, meaning accidental or intentional deletion will not lead to data being lost forever. Here is how you create a retention policy in Box:

Step 1: Go to your Box account. Then go to the admin console and "Governance."
Step 2: Select “Retention.” Click “Create Retention Policy.”
Step 3: Specify retention details, which include things like “Policy Name,” “Policy Description,” “Retention Type,” the data the retention policy affects, and the time period of the policy, etc. Hit "Next."
Step 4: If the policy is to affect specific folders or specific metadata, choose “Select Folders” or “Select Metadata,” respectively. Select the folders or metadata you want to protect with the retention policy.
Step 5: Review the retention policy. In the warning box, fill the necessary check boxes and select “Start Policy.” This will finally apply the retention policy.

Box Governance Retention Policy Limitations

Retention policies only affect files within a selected folder, not subfolders.
When a retention policy is activated, it will only stop once the time period is up. It cannot be edited or stopped while in effect.
Only available to Enterprise Plus Plan users or as a paid add-on.

Legal Hold

A legal hold is a feature that is part of Box Governance and stops legal information from being deleted, thus it will not be lost forever. Here is how to create a legal hold:

Step 1: To start a Legal Hold, enter your Box account, go to the admin console, go to the “Governance” section, then select “Legal Holds.”
Step 2: Hit “Create” to start the legal hold process.

Legal Hold for Custodians

Step 1: You must enter a “Legal Hold Name,” but a “Description” is not necessary.
Step 2: Select the “Users (Custodians)” button.
Step 3: Choose a date range for how long the files should be retained.
Step 4: Select “Next” after finalizing these details.
Step 5: Select “Add Custodians.” It is time to select who will be involved in the files.
Step 6: Go to the “Users” box, then type the names of all the people you want as custodians. Click the “Add” button to make them custodians.
Step 7: Hit the “Next” button and review the legal hold details.
Step 8: To officially apply the legal hold, press “Start Policy.”

Legal Hold for Folders

Step 1: Enter the name for the legal hold, as well as a description, just like with the custodian legal hold.
Step 2: Click the “Policy Criteria” button, then the “Folders” option in the drop down.
Step 3: Select “Next” in the top right.
Step 4: Then hit the “Select Folders” option.
Step 5: Using the “Select Folders” box, find the folder you want with the search bar. You can also filter for the file by user.
Step 6: Once the system gives you the search results, select the folders you want to be under the legal hold.
Step 7: Review the legal hold and select “Next.”
Step 8: Turn on legal hold by clicking on “Start Policy.”

Legal Hold Limitations

When setting up a legal hold on data owned by users you select as custodians, its start and end dates cannot be changed once selected.
Only data between the selected start and end dates become part of the legal hold if you select an end date.
Only users already in your account can be designated as custodians.
As a part of Box Governance, the legal hold is only available to Enterprise Plus Plan users, or those who have it as a paid add-on to another Business Plan.
A legal hold can be applied to folders too but goes so far as to affect subfolders as well. Based on your needs or preferences, this much reach may not be desirable.

2. Native Options for Box Backup

The only native option you have to save Box files is to download files/data from Box to your computer.

Download Single File/Folder at a Time

Step 1: Login to your Box account and select the file/folder you want to download. You will know it’s selected when the box is highlighted.
Step 2: Click the “Download” icon in the upper right. You should find the downloaded file/folder in your "Downloads" folder.

Download Multiple Files/Folders at a Time:

If everything you want to download is in a list, hold “shift” on your keyboard and select the first and last files/folders you want to download. This will also select any data in between them, then all this data will be downloaded to your device.
If the data you want to download to your device is not perfectly in sequence in a list, hold the “Control” key (“Command” on Mac), then select the files you want.

Downloading Data Limitations

You are only downloading data onto your device. If something goes wrong with it, like a virus infection, your files may be corrupted or lost. This is not as safe/effective as backing up your files outside of your device.

3. Back up Box with Third-Party Services

Backup Box to Google Drive

Apart from the obvious reasons to backup files, like security and referral, backing up Box files and folders to Google Drive has its own specific incentives. For instance, Box limits the size of single file uploads based on the plan; the cheap Business Starter Plan only uploads files of up to 2GB at a time, while the expensive Enterprise Plus can handle files of 150GB per upload. Box also only has 10GB of free storage, while Google Drive has 15GB. Here is how you can backup Box files to Google Drive:

Step 1: First, login to your Box account and download the files you want from Box to your device. Right click on a file and select “Download” from the pop-up menu.
Step 2: Enter your Google Drive account and press the “New” button in the “My Drive” section.
Step 3: Click the “File upload" button to select and upload your downloaded file(s) to your Google Drive.

Google Drive Limitations

While this process is relatively easy, it should be noted that it can be tedious if you have a lot of files you want to back up.
You can back up entire folders worth of files by selecting a folder and hitting the “Folder upload” option instead of “File upload,” but this process can also be tedious if you have multiple folders to upload/save.

Backup Box to Dropbox

While Box and Dropbox are similar services, files can be transferred from one to the other in the traditional way of downloading files from one account and uploading it to the other. Here is a basic way to backup Box files to Dropbox:

Step 1: Login to your Box account and download your desired Box files onto your device. Do this by right clicking on the file/folder you want to backup, then select the “Download” option from the pop-up menu.
Step 2: Enter your Dropbox account and click the “Upload” button on the homepage. Select whether you want to upload a file or folder.
Step 3: Select what folder you want to upload the data to, then hit the “Upload” button at the bottom of the box.

DropBox Limitations

Similar to Google Drive’s limitations, the process of downloading and uploading files/folders can become tedious if you have lots of data you want to transfer.
Large amounts of data can slow down the application.

Backup Box Using SysCloud

SysCloud's backup solution for Box offers automated, secure cloud backups for your entire Box data. With SysCloud, administrators can:

Automate backup processes and manage errors efficiently.
Recover data from any point-in-time backup, preserving all sharing permissions and the original folder structure.
Restore data to any Box account, maintaining sharing permissions and folder organization.
Export individual files, folders, or an entire Box account.

4. Frequently Asked Questions on Box Backup

How secure is Box?

Box allows two-factor authentication for accounts, while it applies 256-bit AES encryption to stored data and TLS/SSL encryption for transferring files, making Box relatively secure. You can protect files, when sharing them through links to others, by requiring passwords. But users’ information is not very private: the company collects your information, both what you provide and what it gets while you use Box services.

How long do files and folders stay in Box’s Trash folder after being deleted?

Files and folders stay in the Trash for thirty days, then they are unrecoverable. Business and Enterprise account holders can change this duration.

Can files and folders be recovered after being deleted from the Trash folder?

Yes, but you only have fourteen days to recover the data and recovery is not guaranteed. Learn more

Can collaborators delete files and folders in Box?

Yes, but only if they are given the “co-owner” or “editor” permission levels, and even then, they can only delete sub-folders. The folders that do get deleted by a collaborator will be deleted for other collaborators as well.

Can Box be accessed offline, too?

Normally, files in Box can only be accessed online, as the files are in the cloud, but downloading a desktop companion app, Box Drive, allows you to designate a file for offline access. A copy of the file will be downloaded to your device for offline use.

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In this article

Native Options for Retention
Native Options for Box Backup
Back up Box with Third-Party Services
FAQs

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