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Download files in trashed directory using API

  • May 22, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 47 views
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Has anyone had success getting files from a trashed folder using the API? I'm following this documentation: https://developer.box.com/reference/get-folders-id-trash

Using the endpoint /folders/{folder_id}/trash/ based on the docs I expect to receive a list of files but i get only folder details.

Any idea how to download all files inside trash folder having Id "12345" (for example)?

Thanks

    5 replies

    C
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    You would have to restore the folder in order to see what was inside it prior to trashing. 

    Alex, 

    Box Developer Advocate

    C
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    Hi Alex, 

    Thanks for answering.
    We deal with clients account  under eDiscovery.
    We are allowed only to read/collect client users data but we cannot take action/tamper with their data.
    If we restore a folder under trashed folder it  will be also be shown in history of that folder and we are not allowed to do that.
    We can collect files from Trash then why we cannot collect a folder files under Trash folder.
    I hope you can understand our problem and provide an API/end point for it.

    Thanks,

    C
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    I understand. I would post the feature request on Box Pulse. Leadership uses that to drive future enhancements. Thanks!

    C
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    Hi Alex,

    I applied a Legal hold using API "https://api.box.com/2.0/legal_hold_policies" and then i assign a user on it using API 

    I am assining assign_to.type = User  and assign_to.id = UserId
     
    Now i want to know for above LegalHold  on how many files(count) Legal Hold is applied to and those files Total size in bytes.
    Using which API can i get this data?
     
    Thanks

    "

    C
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    This doesn't currently exist as an API endpoint. You can request it on Pulse if you wish. 

    As a workaround with our CLI, you can download files in bulk by pointing to a CSV with the FileID’s. If you run the Legal Hold report on each of the legal holds that you have, you get an output that has the fileid’s as one of the fields. Extract that out to a CSV, reference the CSV in the CLI call and you’re good to go. You can even have the files zipped in that call as well. Here’s some information to get your going:

    1. https://developer.box.com/guides/tooling/cli/quick-start/ - We just made working with our CLI’s even easier than before, start here to learn how to use the CLI with OAuth 2.0
    2. https://github.com/box/boxcli/blob/main/docs/files.md#box-fileszip-name - If you want to download the files in a zip format, this CLI command will do that
    3. https://github.com/box/boxcli/blob/main/docs/files.md#box-filesget-id - If you want to download without the zip, this is the command for that.

    NOTE - Anything in the trash will not appear. 

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