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Question

Box Sync macOS deleting all my Box-stored files and folders on new Mac

  • May 23, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 53 views
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I use Box Sync on my desktop Mac mini M1. I bought a new laptop. I used Apple's Migration Assistant tool to move all the data from my old Mac to my new Mac.

A couple days later, I logged into Box Sync on the new Mac. It required a new login, which is fine. But my migrated-from-previous-Mac Box Sync folder was already on my new Mac.

Box Sync starts to sync and it starts sending me notifications that it's deleting specific files and folders from my Box Sync directory. The list of deletions keeps growing.

I go to Box.com in Safari and check Trash. The listed files and folders are there. Ugh.

I stop Box Sync. I restore everything from the Box.com Trash directory. I rename my local "Box Sync" directory. I start Box Sync again and let it sync newly.

Guys, this needs to work better.

My Box Sync macOS client is 4.0.8088.

My new Mac is running macOS Ventura 13.1.

    2 replies

    C
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    Hi Mr. Smith, 

    Welcome to the Box Community, I'm happy to help!

    We are sorry to hear that you encountered an issue installing Box Sync on a new device.

    If you are syncing items to your local machine and also need Box Sync on your new computer, we recommend to follow the guidelines in this article to avoid any deletion or duplication on the items that is in your Box account:

    Furthermore, we strongly recommend switching to Box Drive on new devices as Drive is the current Box desktop experience, does not require manual syncing (though this is available through the mark for offline option), and the issue you're experiencing is likely to be resolved straight away after installation. By installing Box Drive from this link Box Sync will be automatically uninstalled, and any files that had not synced up to Box will be preserved in your old Box Sync folder.

    This article explains the difference between Sync and Drive: https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043697354-Switching-from-Box-Sync-to-Box-Drive

    This article goes into a little more detail about Box Drive and its basic functionality: https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043697494

    Thanks for sharing your use case and let us know if you have other questions!

    Regards, 

    C
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    Dear France,

    You wrote:

    > We are sorry to hear that you encountered an issue installing Box Sync on a new device.

    I did not have a problem installing Box Sync on a new device.

    I had a problem after logging into Box Sync on a new device. The device was cloned with Apple's Migration Assistant tool. Box Sync started deleting my Box-stored files from my modern Mac computer after I logged into Box Sync. This is abhorrent software behavior.

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