Box Best Practices

Minimizing your data storage footprint is key to ensuring compliance with vendor contract terms and reducing the risk of incurring costs due to data overages.

Establish a routine to regularly review your Box account and reduce your digital footprint.

Here are some actions to get started:

1. Identify files that haven’t been accessed or modified in a long time.
2. Look for duplicate files, older versions of files that are no longer needed or misaligned versions of the same file.
3. Identify and remove any temporary files or backups that are no longer required.  
4. Compress large files. Use file compression formats, like ZIP, to reduce file sizes before uploading. If needed, download the file, compress it, and upload it, then delete the uncompressed file. Learn more about file compression in this FAQ.

Note: Before deleting old data from shared folders, please confirm with other users who have access to ensure they no longer need the data.

A Department Box Folder is a shared storage space owned by a non-person account, ensuring continuity when staff members change roles or leave the University. It’s ideal for departments that manage large, shared collections of files.

To request a free Department Box Folder, submit a service request. The requester will be set as a co-owner for easy management.

Departments that already have large, shared folders in Box can also submit a service request to have the owner changed to WashU Box Storage to ensure long-term access and stability.

See this FAQ to learn about Who Owns Department Folders?

Parent folder permissions automatically flow down to all child folders, so it is important to design department folder structures based on the intended access levels.

Maintain more granular access on child folders by not granting broad access to the parent folder.

Example: 

Top-level department folder (two co-owners high up in the department, perhaps the Director and Associate Director), which contains:  

• Shared Department content (everyone in department has access) 
• Finance Team Folder (only members of the finance team have access) 
• Marketing Team Folder (only members of the marketing team have access) 

Place all your own folders and files into a single top-level folder in your Box account, such as “Jane’s Files.” The root level will contain many shared folders that cannot be reorganized. This strategy ensures you have a dedicated folder for your own content, keeping it separate from shared content.

Remove yourself from folders that you no longer need access to by following these steps in this FAQ: How can I remove myself from a folder that I don’t need to be part of?

Note: Before deleting old data from shared folders, please confirm with other users who have access to ensure they no longer need the data.

Organize folders and files with clear naming conventions for easier management. Many individuals will create and share folders titled with simple terms such as “Budgets” or “Projects”. This can make it difficult to determine to locate the correct “Projects” folder. Instead, opt for more descriptive folder names such as “FY19 WashU IT Budget Planning” or “2019 Engineering Team Projects”. Using descriptive names improves clarity and searchability.

WashU Box customers determine folder structure, so it varies and can be unpredictable. To quickly find a desired file or folder, use the search option instead of navigating through folders. Here’s how.

1. On the right of the search bar at the top of the page, select the show filters icon to display the search filtering options;
   • Keyword 
   • Type (Folder or File) 
   • Date Updated 
   • Owner 
   • In Folder (search for a particular folder to search in) 
   • Search Only Comments, Descriptions, File and folder names, File contents, Tags)
   • Size (approximate size of file) 
   • Tags 
   • Metadata*

*Note: Metadata is data that provides information about other data. It can include details like the author, date created, file size, and type, helping to organize, find, and understand the content of the data it describes.

2. Tap search at the bottom of the Filters menu. 

When multiple people are working on the same file, it’s best to open them using in the online Office applications, like Word Online. Using the online Office applications allows multiple people to work on the same document at the same time, avoiding the creation of conflicting versions. 

Note: Online Office applications are applications like Word or PowerPoint used within a web browser.  Desktop Office applications are applications like Word or PowerPoint installed on a computer.

When working on a desktop Office application (not the web version), lock the file in Box before opening it with Box Edit or Box Drive to prevent others from editing it until it is unlocked. To lock a file:

1. In the Box application, select the More Options ellipses ( … ) for the file. 
2. Select Lock.
3. Select your desired options, then select Lock.
4. A lock icon will appear for the file.
5. To unlock, select the ellipses or the lock icon and choose Unlock. 

Avoid marking files for offline access. It is memory-intensive and can overwork a computer for large files. Only mark files for offline access when extended periods of limited internet access are expected, such as during a flight or in a remote area.

When naming files, Mac users can use special characters that are invalid in Windows file names, such as “/ ? < > \ * | ”.  Using special characters in file or folder names can result in errors when they are opened on a Windows operating system. 

To easily locate a frequently used folder, add it as a favorite or to a collection.

1. Locate the folder.
2. In the row next to the folder, select the Add to Collection icon (the box with a star).
3. Select the checkbox next to Favorites, or the desired collection, or select Create Collection and follow the prompts to create a new collection.
4. The folder will appear under the Collections column in the left-side Box menu.

1. Select the user icon at the top-right of the window.
2. Select Account Settings.
3. Under Home Page, select Favorites. 
4. Select Save Changes. 
5. After logging in to WashU Box, the first thing shown is a list of your favorite folders.