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Retaining Box files during HD reformat - Mac

  • May 23, 2025
  • 1 reply
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I need to reformat the drive on a Mac machine for an OS upgrade without deleting any of my Box files. I believe the Mac is running Box Drive. Will my Box files be deleted from the cloud/other machines when I reformat the drive? Do I need to take any actions first to avoid deletions, for example 'unsyncing' the machine from the account somehow? (Obvs I will do a Time Machine backup first).

On another, Windows machine I set a couple of Box folders to 'make available offline' so files are stored on its hard drive as well as the cloud: Would files be made available to every machine using that Box account, or just the one where I changed this setting? Would this affect what I want to do with the Mac and the safety of my files in any way?

Thanks.

    1 reply

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    Hi Guy, 

    Welcome to Box Community and glad to help! 

    Please note that your files from your local box folder are secured as long as they're updated in the Box website. 

    And if you're not sure about it, you can always check for your unsynced files in your macOS: 

    • Quit Box Drive if it's currently running.
    • Open a Terminal window and run the following command: 
      fileproviderctl domain remove -A com.box.desktop.boxfileprovider; defaults delete com.box.desktop; rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Box/Box

      This command will:

      • Archive all files that are not synced (not uploaded to Box) from "~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box" and move it to a new folder at "~/Box-Box (Archive)

        Note

        If you already have a "~/Box-Box (Archive)" folder from a previous manual reset, the folder will be named "~/Box-Box (Archive) 2", or if that name is already taken, "~/Box-Box (Archive) 3", and so on.

      • Exclude from the above archive files that are “up-to-date” or synced on Box
      • Re-create the parent hierarchy of the archived files

    And feel free to proceed with your OS Update. 

    Hope it helps! Please let us know if you have clarifications. 

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