Category: Best Practices

By default, your Box account is set to automatically accept invitations to collaborate on folders and files. Those collaborations end up in your All Files list, and that list can get quite long!  Sometimes, you don’t remember who invited you to content or why they did, it’s just there. 

If you’d like the opportunity to accept and reject collaboration invites, follow these steps: 

1. Log in to Box Web at https://box.illinois.edu
2. Click the user icon in the upper-right corner, then click Account Settings in the menu 
3. Click the Sharing tab on the Account Settings Page
4. Uncheck the box under Incoming Invitations to stop automatically accepting invites
5. Click Save Changes

From now on, when someone sends an invite to collaborate, you’ll have an opportunity to review before accepting. Pending invitations are shown at the top of your All Files list and in the Notification area of Box. 

While you’re in account setting, maybe take a look at your Notification settings, too.

• Box Community: Manage Account Settings 
• Box Community: Accept and Reject Invitations from Collaborators 
• Illinois Box Blog: Taming Email Notifications 

You can use account and folder settings to keep your email inbox from getting overrun with comment and download notices from Box.

Set Your Default Notification Levels

1. Click on your image or initials in the upper-right, then click Account Settings.
2. Open the Sharing page and scroll to the Email Notifications section.
3. Check the boxes for notifications you want to receive.

With the settings above, you would only get email notifications when something you own is deleted or someone comments. You will not get notifications on collaborations with the settings above.

Turn Up the Volume on Important Folders

On important folders, you can override your default notification settings and get an email as soon as changes happen.

1. To modify folder settings, right-click on a folder (or click the ellipses (...)) to open the More Options menu, then click Settings. 
2. Scroll down the the Email and Notification section.

Folder owners can override notification delivery on collaborations, causing your options in the folder settings to be limited.

Last week, an article highlighted inadvertent data exposure by Box users at several large organizations. The issue is due to inappropriately set shared link permissions which may be the default set by their organization. They estimate that terabytes of sensitive information at hundreds of Box customers is exposed.

Pandora’s Box: Another New Way to Leak All Your Sensitive Data — Adversis

Our Box enterprise shared links default to “People in this folder/file,” restricting access to invited collaborators only and requiring users to choose to make the content available to the public by selecting the "Anyone with the link" option. Though we’ve received comments and complaints over the years about this “restrictive” setting, findings like this support our choice and ensure we minimize the chance of inadvertent data leakage.

Box for iOS and Box for Android include features for users who rely on their mobile phone or tablet while traveling or working out of the office. Over 100 file formats are supported by the content previewer, so many files can be viewed with no additional software. We will take a look at a few features that empower mobile users with access their content stored in Box.

Visit Tech Services KB: Box for Mobile, iPhone, Android to learn how to login to Box for mobile with your NetID and password.

Work Anywhere with Offline Access

With Box for iOS and Android, you can save files and folders from Box to your mobile device and access them when you're not online. To make a file or folder available offline, swipe right in list view, or choose Make Available Offline from the ellipsis (…) menu. Content marked for offline access is shown in the Offline section of the Box app.

Upload Photos, Videos, and Other Files

The Box mobile app can upload new photos and videos automatically. Turn on Automatic Upload in the settings, choose a destination folder, and decide whether to include existing photos. Turn off Use Cellular Data to only upload when on wifi and keep uploads from consuming your data plan.

The Add (+) menu in the content browser lets you create folders, take photos to upload, upload existing photos, or create a new Box Note.

Best of all, you can use the iOS Share menu to upload files from many other apps to Box. Create and save a file in most applications, then use the Box action to upload.

In this example, an audio note from the Voice Memos app on iOS is uploaded to Box through the Share menu. Notice you can choose the destination folder and watch the upload progress bar.

Review your Favorite and Recently Accessed Files

The best way to fight folder sprawl in Box is to mark your work-in-progress content as Favorites for quick access in the web and mobile apps. Use the Add to Favorites menu option, then you can visit the Favorites section in the mobile app to see your marked folders and docs. Your favorite items are also displayed in the sidebar of the web app.

Need to double check a figure in the document you just closed on your desktop? The Recents section contains the content you've accessed most recently, including files opened in other Box applications or on other devices.

References:

• Tech Services KB: Box for Mobile, iPhone, Android
• Box Community: Using Box for iOS
• Box Community: Using Box for Android
• Box Community: Creating and Viewing Favorites
• Box Community: Using Recents

Data security also involves ensuring any business data is always available to the business.  Personnel changes, sickness, or other events can leave important files in your Box account unavailable to your colleagues, and they may not realize that until they really need it!

We've developed Box Team Folders to give teams and organizations a place to keep data that needs to be resilient to changes in unit personnel or project team members.

Some college and departmental IT teams manage Team Folders for their users. Please contact your local IT team to find out more.

See Technology Services KB: Information and Requesting Shared Team Folders for more information.

The first things collaborators see is a folder's name. Include a reminder that this data is sensitive or only for a certain group in the folder's name to provide important context.

Including phrases like INTERNAL or PRIVATE give a clue that the contents should be handled carefully. EXTERNAL can mark folders shared with Box users outside of the university. Folders marked PUBLIC might be sent in email with an open Shared Link or embedded in a web page for anyone to access.

Adding a description of the folder or file contents can also provide clues to collaborators about how to handle the data. In the description, you can describe the intended audience and any restrictions on sharing.

See Box Community: Adding Descriptions to Folders and Files