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Question

Metadat cascade policy overwriting existing data

  • May 22, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 14 views
C
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Hi, 

We have set up all our folders with metadata cascade policies, as we would like any files that are added to these folders to automatically be assigned the relevant metadata. However, we have noticed that when copying files from elsewhere in Box, any existing metadata on the file is not overwritten by the metadata policies assigned to the folder that the file is moved to. 

We are using the API to set up the metadata cascade policies. Is there any way to ensure that any file moved into a folder with a metadata policy assigned to it automatically has any existing metadata overwritten with the new metadata as per the new folder's metadata policy? 

 

Thanks for your help. 

    6 replies

    C
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    Hey John,

     

    This is currently expected behavior. Please check out this article, which mentions your question in the FAQ section! 

     

    Best, 

    Kourtney

    C
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    HI Kourtney, 

     

    Thanks for the reply. I have read the FAQs but  am still a bit confused. The below text is referenced:

    What happens if my file already has metadata on it? If I move this into a folder with a conflicting cascade policy, is this information overwritten?

    Metadata cascade policies do not overwrite any existing metadata - we don't want to delete customer data without the right notification. If a conflict occurs, existing metadata values persist on the file. If you want to override this change, you can use the back-filling capabilities of the cascade functionality to force all metadata within that folder to have that folder's metadata.

    Can you please confirm what you mean by the back-filling capabilities? Does this mean that the cascade policy needs to be triggered to override down again? So that every time a new file is put into the folder, the cascade function needs to be actioned to apply the metadata to that particular file? Is there no way to have this automated? 

    Thanks. 

    C
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    Hey John, 

    I understand how that wording is confusing and can submit some changes to the team to try to make it more clear! The back-filling capability it's referring to is documented here.

    Best, 

    Kourtney 

    C
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    Hi Kourtney, 

    Thanks for the reply. However I'm still not sure this answers my question. I understand that we can use the API to force apply the metadata cascade policy and have it overwrite metadata on files currently in that folder.

    However, if a file is later added to this folder, can the cascade policy automatically overwrite any metadata currently attached to the new file? Or does a new API call need to be made to the folder to force apply the metadata cascade policy again? If so, this would mean we need to make a new API to force apply the metadata cascade policy every time a new file is added to the folder. 

    Thanks.  

    C
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    Hi Kourtney, 

    I just wanted to check back in on this and see if you had any additional details given my last comment? 

    Thanks.

    K
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    • keolson
    • New Member
    • December 5, 2025

    Hi, did you ever get an answer to your question? I am running into the same issue and am trying to decipher the Box documentation to see if this is something that can be “turned on” when the folder is created, or if I am going to need to run an API call to cause the cascade whenever there is a file that needs the metadata updated.

    Thanks,

    Kenny

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