Box Migration Experience
UITS has started automatically migrating Box files belonging to faculty and staff. Here are a few observations based on the experience:
- UITS will email you 1 week before migrating your data, and again 1 day before your migration starts. You should read these emails – they include important information about the process.
- On the day of migration, there are typically NO notifications that the migration has started or is in progress.
- The migration process can take several days, and you’ll be notified when it’s over.
- During the migration, you will see files/folders populate inside a “FromBox” folder in the storage destination that you chose (either Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive). DO NOT modify files in FromBox until migration is complete!
- Only files and folders that you own will be migrated – this means ONLY files/folder for which you are the “Owner” will be migrated. If you are listed as a “co-owner”, “editor” or other permission on a file/folder, then someone else is the owner, and it will not be migrated along with the files that you own.
- Once the migration has finished you’ll receive a followup email, which you should read, with a migration “job report” that you should review. This migration report will have important information about any “flagged” files that were corrupt or that couldn’t be migrated. From there you can download a list of your shared files, who you’re sharing them with, and where the files were migrated – you may wish to warn these collaborators that your shared files have moved.
- Once the migration is completed, the Box folders that were migrated aren’t deleted in Box – instead they’re moved to a Box folder named “Your Name (username@indiana.edu) Files and Folders”. Inside this folder you will have “Viewer” privileges only. You will be unable to create, delete or modify any content in these folders in the future.
- UITS will notify you in the followup email not to create new files folders or folders in your Box Account. Automatic migration is a one-time event – if you later create any new content that you own in Box, it will not be automatically migrated and you will lose that data when Box is discontinued in May 2021.
- Some users have reported problems accessing files with Box Sync. The Box Drive software is a more reliable alternative for accessing your Box files – see https://kb.iu.edu/d/aohc (About Box Drive) for details.
The best documentation on the process is in https://kb.iu.edu/d/bgbg (IU Box retirement FAQ).