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Question

Restricting subfolder access when parent folder has inherited permissions

  • May 14, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 17 views
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Hi Box Support Team,

I am hoping you can clarify how folder permission inheritance works in Box, and whether there are any options I may have missed.

Our setup:
- We have a Tier 1 parent folder: AMOGY - E&R Management Team
- Inside it we have Tier 2 subfolders including: 02 - Budget
- Inside 02 - Budget we have a Tier 3 subfolder: May 2026 ERO Budget

24 people currently have collaboration access to the Tier 1 parent folder, which means they inherit access all the way down to the May 2026 ERO Budget folder.

I need to restrict the May 2026 ERO Budget folder to only a small subset of those 24 people.

My specific questions:

1. Is there any native Box feature that allows me to block or restrict inherited permissions at a subfolder or file level — without moving the content out of the parent folder hierarchy?

2. If not, is this possible through any Box Admin console settings or enterprise-level controls?

3. Is the only solution to move the restricted folder outside the parent hierarchy and reshare it as a standalone folder?

Thank you !!!

    1 reply

    Pouncysilverkitten

    Oooooh this is a good question. 
    1 - Yes I will discuss below
    2 - No
    3 - Flattening is always the easiest route but look below because you CAN use competing groups to help a little bit...

    In a competing groups scenario, you can cherry pick folders in a structure to add a more powerful group (even with the exact same people) and those permissions will not go BACK UP the waterfall (though they will still go down).  It's pretty awesome to do this but you would need to move your Tier 3 subfolder up one level.  Happy to show you how!
     

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