Getting started with the Box migration: Personal files

Learn about the options available for migrating personal files from Box at IU to either Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive. IU’s cloud storage agreement with Box ends in spring 2021 and student, staff, and faculty files will be migrated after May 22, 2020. You do not have to migrate your files, but you do need to decide where you want them to go. This recorded webinar will help you determine what personal files are, prepare your personal files for migration, and decide which service to choose for storing personal files.

The deadline for deciding where to move your personal files is May 22, 2020.

Getting started with the Box migration: Personal files

Recorded 05-13-2020

Description of the video:

[Tom] Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to this afternoon's session of Getting started with the Box migration: personal files edition. My name is Tom. I work with a group called IT Training here at IU. I am joined by a large group of additional panelists today. If the morning session is any indicator, this is going to be quite a, an active session for them. We've got a group of people from Digital Education Programs and Initiatives. And we also have joining us today Jake George from Support Center Tier Two to answer any sorts of questions and concerns that we all — that we come up with at the end of today's session. We are using the Q&A pod today to — the Q&A feature today to record questions and answers. However, we do kind of ask that you hold off on your questions if you can until we get towards the end of the presentation. What this will do is this will help kind of prevent the ability — er, prevent all the duplicate questions that may arise as we come through this session today. One of the issues we had in the morning is the same question was asked multiple times and we are going to try to address every question that comes into the Q&A pod. [Jake] And we did this morning. [Tom] Yeah, we did this morning. So we want to try to keep that duplication down, but we do also want to get your questions answered. The upvoting feature is turned on in the QA pod so you will be able to give a thumbs up to questions that you also have and that will bubble them up to the top of the list. So we'll answer the most common, most popular questions first. Kinda go on from there. Okay, so that's my sort of housekeeping introductory portion of the webinar. We're going to jump into the content today. If you've been to other Getting Started webinars with IT Training, there is usually a bit of a hands-on demonstration. This session is not going to be that. This session is almost entirely me conveying to you information and then our team answering questions when everything is over at the end. So this really is an information dissemination session and it's less of a "this is how to do something" session. So let's get started. What is in this webinar? This is important, an important thing to kinda keep in mind as we're going. We're going to be talking about what's happening to Box, what's currently happening in the process, how Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive compare to Box, we're going to be answering, like sort of a lightning round common questions and answers. We'll talk about some of the known issues and then give you some places where you can learn more about the migration process. Ok? Now this next slide is just as important as this slide. What is not in this webinar? So we are not able to talk about group, team, department, IU, or incident — institutional data in the migration process, we're not able to talk about Entrusted or Box Health accounts. We have no details about migrating group owned data, team owned data or department owned data, or their associated accounts. And we don't really have information about the data owned by those accounts and what's going to happen with it. All of these things are still being decided. Any questions you have about this, we don't have answers for them right now. We can only answer questions related to personal account migration because much of that has been decided as you probably saw when you got in the room, I was editing this slide show. There are things that still are not decided yet. And those things are kind of, as we speak, changing. So, that being said, just a quick review. Here's what we're doing today. We're going to be talking about what's happening, what's going on right now, some differences between destination services, but we, we're not going to be talking about group data as it relates to the migration. We are going to talk a little bit about how to deal with group data that may be in your personal Box account. That's very different than answering questions about what the, what's going to happen to group owned data during this migration process. So let's jump into the first thing on the list, what's happening to Box? So IU's agreement with Box is ending in the Spring 20 — of 2021. This is because Box has exponentially raised their prices. And it's not in IU's best interests to keep paying for Box. The reason for that is because the two identified services to replace Box, both Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive, are already being paid for by the university as part of our agreements with Microsoft and Google respectively. Those are the places where personal file storage is going. Everything I'm talking about today is personal file storage. We're not talking about groups. There is a different solution for group content. So keep that in mind as we're going through today's session. IU is working with a vendor called SkySync. SkySync is going to be transferring the content from Box to one of the replacement services based on your choice in the Find My Drive survey linked on storage.IU.edu. SkySync is only going to move your content once. And whatever your most recent response to that survey is, is where your content will go. We'll talk more about what exactly gets moved later. But this is essentially what's happening to Box. Right now, IU faculty, students, and staff are being asked to look at the way they're using their personal documents in Box, look at the two services and decide where they want their content to go. Okay? The migration of our personal documents will take at least four months. At least four months. And that's prepand — with pre-pandemic bandwidth capabilities, right? So everything is moving slower now than it was before we all — before March. So that's why this process seems — feels a little accelerated because we need to kind of push things forward in order to make it out of Box by the time our agreement runs out at the university. I already talked about this slide, I got ahead of myself. So let's talk about how to define a personal file. And we're going to talk about this, this through two different lenses. And these lenses are important, okay? Because the lenses are one, what does IU identify as a personal file, and two, what does SkySync identify as a personal file. So let's talk first about IU's definition and what is actually — what, what that means for us, right? So a personal file is essentially a file. Oops, sorry, I got ahead of myself again. Like I mentioned before, content of personal, in your personal Box accounts are what's going to be migrating. That's the first part of the migration phase. Group owned content and content owned by your department is going to migrate later. Okay. A common question we get is, "do I have to migrate my own content?" No, do not migrate your own content. We're — you don't even have the option to migrate your own content. I mean, you do, but it's going to cause problems. It's going to cause duplicate files, it's going to cause duplicate permissions, okay? Your best bet as a, as a user of these services for your personal content is to wait and let SkySync deal with the migration. Once the migration is done, any sorts of changes to the content that got migrated, any sort of collaboration or sharing changes you want to make, that's the time to make it, okay? During the migration, you don't want to move things over to the new service on your own. So now let's talk about how IU views personal content. Personal content is anything in your Box account that does not directly relate to the work, your work at IU. Okay? A good example of this are things like pictures of your pets, videos of grandkids, copies of your resume, cover letters, maybe archival tax return documents. These are personal files. The main governing distinction, like, the easiest way to decide if it's personal content or if it's content that should be managed by a group account at IU, is to answer this question. If I had to leave my job at IU tomorrow, would all my colleagues have everything they need to do to keep doing their work? Now that's assuming that your — when you leave IU tomorrow, all of your Box content is shut off. Nobody can access it anymore. Anything that you own in Box is turned off. If the answer to that question is yes, everyone will still be able to do their work, then you don't have any personal — er, non-personal content in your Box account. You don't have any department content, institutional contact, group content, team content, IU content in your Box account. That's what — that's how we want this to be. Okay? Now this is how SkySync decides, and this is how you can tell, if content is owned by you or if it's owned by a group. The distinction that the migration vendor is going to make is based on who owns a folder in Box. Okay? So if you look at the two images I've got on the screen, the one on the left is a folder that I own. I have invited one of my colleagues as a collaborator in that folder. But I own that folder because I'm number one at the top on the list indicated as owner. The one on the right is content that's owned by a group. Okay? You can see that IT Training is the owner of that content. I'm a co-owner, but IT Training owns that content. Okay? This is the distinction that is — that SkySync is going to use to determine whether or not something is migrating in this phase or its migrating in the group content phase. Okay? What we want to do is we want to make it so that in our account, we want all the things that are — that are identified by IU as a personal file to be owned by us, anything that's identified by IU to be a group or team or department or organizational or institutional or IU content, we want that owned by a group or departmental account in Box, not an individual person, not a person, a group account. That's where we want to get. And that's one of the things we are going to be talking about as this kinda goes, as this presentation goes on. So if you're like me, you may have some institutional content that is — falls in this personal ownership category. So what do you do about it? Part of what you can do between now and the 22nd of May is start working on organizing your Box account. You can remove things that you own that you no longer need. You can transfer ownership of things that are departmental files to a departmental or group account. And these are two ways you could do that. Number one is to invite the group account as a co-owner to that folder that contains departmental information, departmental data, university data. Once you do that and they accept, you can turn your permission to a lower level, probably editor instead of co-owner. That will ensure that the ownership gets transferred to that other account, that group account, that departmental account. The other way to do this is to have the owner of that shared account, group account, create a folder in Box and invite the team as a collaborator. Then everybody on the team can move content from their Box folder into that collaborated folder and then demote themselves accordingly. These processes are documented in the Knowledge Base and on Box's website. So if you have questions about the specifics of how to make this happen, you'll find the documentation there. As far as the logistics, you need to look at your data and determine, is this something that the people I work with need? And if it is, you need to look at the ownership of that particular folder and get that sorted. And the way you sort it is with these two, these two methods here. Some of you may be asking, now, I don't know if my team has a Box account, a group Box account. If you don't know the answer to whether or not you have one of these shared, group, departmental, university owned, whatever Box accounts, you can talk to your IT Pro, they will have the answer for you. If you don't have an IT Pro or don't know who that person could be, you can also ask the Support Center. Through this whole process, your IT Pro can request a new group account to have access to Box. Okay, so again, to kind of summarize this whole section before we go onto a feature comparison, content that you require to do work should be owned by an account that's owned by your group, not owned by an account that's owned by a person in Box. This should have been the case for a very long time, but especially now in this process, we want to make sure that that's true. Anything else that you don't require from your Box account to do work, that's personal stuff and you probably don't have to change anything about it, okay? Okay, let's talk about how these new services compare to Box. Okay? This is a really common thing people are concerned about, like which, which of these services has the most features? I may be the first to tell you, I may not be, but it's not so much the set of features that matter. What matters is your familiarity with the product or the types of things you're going to use with that storage, or whether or not it has a feature or two that you prefer to use over the other product. Oh — went too fast. The one thing I will tell you is that most of the common features, capability — and capabilities for Box exist in both of these, these storage providers, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive. They can do a majority of the things that a majority of people in Box were able to do. Okay. Now it's some fringe cases, some really specific features that are going to be different or be missing in these new services. So what I'm gonna do is point out the things the most, the biggest sort of feature, missing features of OneDrive and Google Drive. There is a much larger feature comparison document that you'll see linked on these slides as well. So first of all, compared to Box, here are things that both OneDrive and Google Drive do not do. You cannot set up an email address and have everything sent to that address show up in a folder. That's a Box only feature. OneDrive and Google Drive don't allow that. Neither of them have embed widgets. So you can't embed a folder on a page, for example, so that somebody can see the contents of the folder on that page. You aren't able to customize shared URLs, so you won't be able to do something like iu.box.com/v/cutecatpictures. That's not a capability of OneDrive and Google Drive. Both the services also do not offer commenting on a file level. You can comment on things within files. So if you're familiar with using Microsoft Word's commenting features or Google Docs commenting features where you can comment on a word or a paragraph. That's the kind of commenting you can do on these services. And you're not able to comment on an entire file or an entire folder. So those are probably the biggest feature changes that are common between both of them compared to Box. Now as far as the individual services go, these are the things, the biggest things that are different. First of all, it's permissions. Box has a very robust, very detailed permissions model. In OneDrive, the uploader and previewer permissions do not exist in OneDrive, compared to Box. In Google Drive, you only get "can edit", "can comment", and "can view" permissions. Any other level of permission doesn't exist in Google. Now back to OneDrive, the other big missing feature is the inability to set an expiration on a lock. So if you were to lock a file in Box, you could set a duration. So you could say, I'm going to work on this for 30 minutes. After those 30 minutes, let someone else work on it. You can't do that in OneDrive. If you set a lock, you have to remember to remove the lock. Google Drive, you just can't lock, and you can't prevent others from modifying a document when you're modifying it. In Google, there are also no desktop applications for Google Drive's native file types. You also can't change your sharing defaults, and you can't create custom tagging or custom metadata on files in Google Drive. Okay, lightning round, common questions and answers. First question, do I have to migrate my files — files? No, SkySync will do that. Don't migrate your own content. Don't try to get ahead of the game and move your things before this migration happens, it'll just cause headaches for yourself. What will SkySync migrate? All the files and folders. Any collaboration permission that it can mimic in the destination service, which means anything except viewer and previewer, I'm sorry, what was it — uploader and previewer in OneDrive. And however it can map Box's permissions to the "can edit", "can view", "can comment" permissions in Google Drive. Box Notes will be migrated. They will become Word documents, the .docx extension. And during the migration, table formatting and list formatting will get garbled. But as far as the tests have proven, the content does, for the most part, stay there. It's just the content will be garbled in with the formatting. Can you, uh, Once the migration's over, can you only use the service that you chose during the migration period? The answer to that is no. Everybody at IU is going to be able to use OneDrive and Google Drive. What this migration is doing is it's taking the content you have and the permissions associated with that content and moving it to another service. Okay? You will be able to log into both, you'll be able to use both. It's just the migration will go from Box to one of these services. You cannot choose to have your content migrated to both. It will go to one or the other. Can you change your mind after you make a decision? Yes, you can. Just go out — go and fill out the Find My Drive survey again from storage.iu.edu. Now about Canvas integration. Is there Canvas integration? Yes, but right now it's only for Google Drive. Microsoft is working on a solution for Canvas integration and it will likely be part of the group migration process, but it's not part of the personal content migration process. What if you miss the May 22nd deadline? Well, if you miss the deadline or you don't make a decision, the default service is Microsoft OneDrive. And this really isn't IU endorsing OneDrive over Google Drive. This really just comes down to our relationship with Microsoft is a much deeper relationship that our relationship with Google. And there has to be a default. So we went with the one with the stronger relationship with the vendor. When will there be information about group owned or departmental content or team content, university owned content, any content that's not personal content during this migration process? It's going to be after the personal migration process is over. The data stewards are currently looking at the possible storage solutions for group content. They're evaluating the security, they're evaluating the privacy, the privacy and the practices for those kind of things. They're also taking a look at how the personal migration is going. And once all of this is done, there'll be some guidance about what to do with your departmental content, your team owned content, and the content that is owned by a group at IU. Right now, this is just personal content. I can't stress that enough. It's just personal content. We don't know the details about group content because they're still being decided. When will my stuff migrate? That's a very good question. The migrations will begin after May 22nd. Ok. That's the deadline for everybody to say, this is where I want to go. After that deadline, SkySync will start working on the migration process. You will receive a notice one week before your migration and you'll be able to use your content in Box all the way up through until the end of your migration. Once the migration is done, you will be able to, you, you'll only be able to view the content in your Box account. Anything and everything in Box will be view only starting in March 2021. Now that's not just personal content, that's every piece of content in March. Er, in Box. March 2021 is when it will be view-only. After your particular migration, everything in your Box account will remain view-only until the service gets retired in spring 2021. Okay. Alright, so that's it for the lightning round. Let's talk about some of the known issues with this process. Okay. So number one, any comments on a file or folder will be lost. SkySync cannot associate those because those are not capabilities in the destination services. Box Notes will be converted to Word documents. Tables and bullet points will be lost, but the data seems to be preserved from initial testing. So just keep that in mind. There are other file naming limits in these services, so SkySync may have to change the names of some of your files or folders depending on if you use certain special characters when you name them. As is true with any sort of file moving, there is a chance that files may get corrupted. It's a very small chance, but this is mostly a disclaimer for, for us saying, look, some — there may be an error somewhere. Just — it's not going to be common, but it's possible. Now if the file in Box is already corrupt, SkySync can't uncorrupt it to move it. But there is a chance that anytime you move a file, even on your own computer, file may become corrupted. [Jake] And just to piggyback off of that, this is Jake with Tier 2. So again, very small chance. And at the end of the migration, you'll receive a personal report summary of everything that's migrated and all the permissions as well as any errors. So you will know as soon as your migration is completed whether or not there were any issues. And that as long as the file is fine in Box, we can recover it just fine. [Tom] You'll be able to download from Box and then reupload to the new service. Any file larger than 15 gigabytes will not be automatically migrated to OneDrive. Any — so Box saves up to like a hundred versions of documents. And that's a really — what defines a version is difficult to define in Box, but a bunch of old, so older versions of documents may not be migrated. It all depends on where your versions fall. So like a hundred versions of a Box Note is different than a hundred versions of a Word document. So just know that your older versions of documents will not be migrated, but you will get a version history in both OneDrive and Google Drive that represents the most recent versions of a document. And again, like we were talking about before, uploader permissions are just going to be removed. I mean, there, there's no analog — analog in Box, and I'm sorry, in OneDrive or Google Drive. So the permission will just be removed. So where can you learn more? Well, here's a list of links. April is going to be adding these to the chat. And I'm gonna talk about each of these briefly before we jump into our Q&A. Number one is Storage at IU. That's storage.iu.edu. This is kinda the, the homepage for this migration. There's a series of question and answers there, that's also where you can find a link to the Find Your Drive survey. That's kinda like the — and links to the pertinent knowledge base documents. That's the place to go to start. There's also a Knowledge Base document about the Box retirement. It goes through some of the specifics and some of the things that I've talked about today. The FAQ has some of the questions that people have been asking about the service — in fact, from the morning session, Jake made a bunch of notes. to have things added to this FAQ. So all the documents here are constantly being updated with the exception of the contact your support center document, that one is pretty stable as far as these documents go. There is a matrix that compares the features of Box, Google Drive and OneDrive on the Knowledge Base as well. It's really robust and a lot more in depth than what I can get to in this presentation. And if you have any questions, you can always contact your support center.

ARCHIVED: IU Box retirement FAQ

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.

To view all the content available to you here, use the green Log in button at the top of this page to log into the Knowledge Base.

Important:
Deleting your FromBox folder prior to your migration being completed will lead to data loss. To determine if your migration has been completed, see Have I already been migrated?

On this page:


About the IU Box migration

Why are we retiring IU Box in spring of 2021?

Box is dramatically raising its prices and is ending its unlimited storage offering. IU has existing contracts with Microsoft and Google, so this move will be a better use of university resources.

Because there is a time crunch, and because IU has a large amount of data in Box, UITS needs to start moving data now. At proven speeds, migrating all of IU's data will take longer than four months.

To minimize potential disruptions to the fall and spring semesters, and to complete the migration by the end of IU's contract, UITS is aiming to move as much data out of Box during the summer as possible. UITS estimates that 95% of IU's Box data will be migrated this summer.

What is the timeline for this retirement and when was I notified?

  • March 4, 2020: UITS began communicating this change to IT Pros.
  • March-May 2020: UITS began surveying users about their preferred service for non-institutional files.
  • May 22, 2020: Find your Drive survey closed, and migrations of non-institutional files began.
  • May 31, 2020: Uploader permissions were disabled in IU Box. Users who have used this permission level were notified May 19.
  • June 1, 2020: UITS began sending one-week notices to each user who will be migrated.
    • Migration of non-institutional content will take about four months.
    • After your migration, your files in Box that have been migrated will become read-only.
    • You will retain editing access to files in accounts that have not been migrated.
  • September 10, 2020: UITS began surveying group account, Box Entrusted Data Account, and Organizational Account owners about the destination service and location of top-level Box folders owned by these accounts.
  • October 10, 2020: Group account, BEDA, and OA Box migration survey due.
  • October 11, 2020: Migration of group accounts began.
  • November 2020 through December 2020: BEDA and OA Box accounts were moved.
  • November 20, 2020: UITS began surveying owners of IU Health folders about the destination location within Microsoft Secure Storage for Box Health folders. Note: Google Secure Storage is an option, but migrations to this destination will not be done automatically.
  • January 8, 2021: Box Health survey will be due.
  • January 11, 2021: Box Health migrations will begin.
  • March 1, 2021: User accounts will become read-only; you will no longer be able to edit or upload files in Box, but you will be able to view and download files until May 10, 2021.
  • May 10, 2021: IU Box will be disabled for all users. You will no longer have access to files stored in Box.

UITS has communicated information about this migration via email and other channels. UITS also posted information about the migration on legacy websites that are no longer maintained.

Why were Microsoft OneDrive at IU and Microsoft Teams at IU chosen as the default, and how will files in Box be migrated?

OneDrive and Microsoft Teams were chosen as the default storage solution because they best align with IU email and telephony infrastructure.

UITS has contracted with a company called SkySync to migrate Box data. If you did not choose Google at IU My Drive during the open survey, the default location for your non-institutional data will be Microsoft OneDrive at IU. After your data is copied from Box, you can move files between OneDrive and Google My Drive.

Institutional data will be migrated at a later time. For more about steps you should take to prevent institutional data from moving to OneDrive or Google My Drive, see What do I need to do? below.

Important:
Microsoft OneDrive at IU and Google at IU My Drive are not appropriate for institutional file storage. For more, see 1. Choose a storage solution below.

Can my migration be delayed, or can my department pay for Box so I can continue using it?

Due to technical constraints, UITS cannot delay migrations of individuals' files. If you're concerned about interruptions to projects due to individual account migrations, you may prevent your institutional files from being migrated at this time. See What do I need to do? below.

Retiring IU Box also means retiring IU's Box tenant, which ultimately means all data needs to be migrated even if your department paid for Box on their own. If departments decided to purchase Box, they would need to submit a You do not have sufficient permission to view this document. for review, and they would become responsible for administrating Box for their staff. Additionally, secondary non-IU accounts would need to be used to sign into this new Box instance, and Single Sign-On (SSO) would no longer be supported.

When will my files be migrated? How much time do I have?

One week before your files will be moved to OneDrive or Google My Drive, you will receive an email notification; the end of that week is your deadline. UITS strongly recommends organizing your files now, however, to avoid rushing during that week.

Migrations for individuals' files began May 22, 2020. UITS cannot provide specific days or times for migrations. System administrators are moving a certain amount of data per day, rather than a certain number of users per day.

Institutional files, such as Box Health data, will be migrated per the timeline.

What do I need to do?

Individual data migration

Migrations for individuals' files began May 22, 2020. UITS cannot provide specific days or times for migrations. System administrators are moving a certain amount of data per day, rather than a certain number of users per day. UITS recommends you do the following before you receive the one-week notice for your individual file migration:

  • Determine which of your files are institutional files and which are an individual's files. For help, see 2. Determine whether you're storing institutional data
  • Move any institutional files to Box folders owned by a non-individual account. Contact your IT Pro for help. If you don't have an IT Pro, contact the UITS Support Center.
  • Delete unnecessary files and remove yourself from files or folders that you don't want or need to access.
  • Do not move files in Box to OneDrive or Google My Drive yourself. UITS's migration tool will ensure that your Box file-sharing permissions and folder structure will be maintained in the new service. If you start moving now, you could end up with multiple copies of your files.

Institutional data migration

Before your group or organizational account is migrated, UITS recommends you do the following:

1. Choose a storage solution

What service does UITS recommend for workflows I used to perform in IU Box (hiring, audits, inventories, etc.)?

Due to the vast number of workflows used by different departments, UITS can't provide a "one-size-fits-all" recommendation. For help determining which service best suits your needs, see:

For further assistance, consult your IT Pro or contact the Support Center.

2. Determine whether you're storing institutional data

Where your files should migrate to depends on the type of files they are. As you are reviewing your content in Box, ask yourself:

  • Do these files include sensitive institutional information (such as restricted or critical data)? If so, they are institutional files and should be moved to Box folders owned by a non-individual account before migration.
  • Will these files be needed by someone else at IU (such as my department) if I change positions or leave IU? If so, they are institutional files and should be moved to Box folders owned by a non-individual account before migration.
  • Are these files unique to me (for example, family photos)? If so, they are an individual's files.

Institutional files should be stored in non-individual storage locations in the following services:

Note:
You do not need to manually move files to the following services. More information is forthcoming about migrations of institutional files. For actions to take now, see What do I need to do? above.
  • Google at IU Shared Drives
  • Microsoft Teams at IU
  • SharePoint Online
  • Google at IU Secure Storage
  • Microsoft at IU Secure Storage

An individual's files should be stored in an individual account in the following services:

  • Microsoft OneDrive at IU
  • Google at IU My Drive

Institutional files are stored in services that will not delete the files when you change positions or leave IU, ensuring that those who will need to access those files will still have it.

An individual's files are stored in services that will delete the content once the account owner has left IU.

Note:
Institutional data should not be stored in Microsoft OneDrive at IU or Google at IU My Drive, even if the storage space is associated with a group account, except in very specific exceptional cases (see Where will existing Canvas Box folders be migrated?). This varies from how institutional data was handled in Box. While, in Box, standard group accounts could be used for institutional data, in Microsoft Storage and Google Storage, specific institutional storage locations should be used instead.

Where the files are stored has no impact on and is entirely unrelated to legal ownership. For more about intellectual property at IU, see about Copyright & Intellectual Property.

See also:

3. If you're storing institutional data, complete the necessary form

Complete the Institutional storage request form.

4. Access your files from a web browser, a file explorer, or both

For detailed instructions on accessing and managing your files in the Microsoft Storage and Google Storage environments, see:

Box Health migrations

Box Health data is being migrated to Microsoft Secure Storage. A survey will be sent out to designated owners of Box Health folders per the timeline, allowing the owners to select the Microsoft Secure Storage location to which folders should be migrated. Box Health folder owners can view the folders assigned to them at the Box Health Impact List in Tableau. If you need to change ownership of a folder or designate a different co-owner as the owner of the folder, contact contact Tier 2.

Additional information and support

Before migration

How can I prepare for the migration?

Before your data is migrated, UITS recommends that you:

  • Move any institutional files to Box folders owned by a non-individual account. See 2. Determine whether you're storing institutional data.
  • Delete unnecessary files and remove yourself from shared files and folders that you no longer want to access.
  • Do not move files from Box to OneDrive or Google My Drive before or during the migration. UITS's migration tool will ensure that your Box file-sharing permissions and folder structures are preserved in the new service. If you move files or folders manually before your migration, you may end up with duplicate files, and will need to set permissions manually.

Can I still get a Box group account if I don't already have one for my team, group, or department?

No.

Can I see which of my individual Box account files will be migrated in the first stage?

To do so:

  1. Log into Box @ IU using your individual IU username and passphrase.
  2. Locate the search options icon in the search box at the top of the screen.
  3. For "File Type", select Folders. In the "Owner" field, enter your username.
  4. Execute your search by clicking on the search icon in the search box.
  5. Your folders to be migrated during the first stage of migration will display. Review the list, and identify folders that need to be moved to a non-individual Box account to prevent migration as part of this phase.

Will file versions be migrated?

Yes. Full file version sets will be migrated. OneDrive and Google My Drive may manage versioning differently than Box; more details will be provided soon.

What privacy protections are in place for my data?

As with other IT service contracts, IU's contracts with Microsoft and Google include privacy protections that prevent the unauthorized (and unlawful) access, sharing, or monetization of IU data stored on these cloud services. IU's contracts provide greater privacy protections than the user agreement for your personal (non-IU) Google or Microsoft accounts. For more, visit Protect data shared with cloud services and other third parties.

During migration

Will I be able to access my files during migration?

During the migration, you may continue to access and modify files within Box; however, you should wait until you have received a notice via email that your migration is complete before modifying any files already migrated into OneDrive or Google My Drive.

After migration

Have I already been migrated?

Once your account is migrated, you will receive a notification and migration summary in email.

After my migration, where can I find my files and folders?

Your data will be moved into a new folder on OneDrive or Google Drive named FromBox.

The original versions of your data will also be retained in a read-only state on Box. They will be in a folder named <your name> (<your IU email address>) Files and Folders (for example, Jane Doe (janedoe@iu.edu) Files and Folders). This folder will be owned by an administrative container called "Box Hold". If you have chosen not to automatically accept incoming Box collaboration invitations, you'll have to manually accept the invitation to this folder.

After my migration, can I have my data moved to a different storage solution?

No. Because IU is being charged by the amount of content moved, UITS will not perform automated migrations once a migration has been completed.

You can use IU Cloud Storage to manually move content to another service if desired; see Use an IUanyWare virtual desktop to migrate files between IU Cloud Storage services. If you have concerns, staff should contact their departmental IT Pros; others should contact the Support Center.

If I deleted my FromBox folder, can I recover it?

Important:
Deleting your FromBox folder prior to your migration being completed will lead to data loss. To determine if your migration has been completed, see Have I already been migrated?

For information about recovering deleted files in OneDrive or Google Drive, see:

Will I need to inform collaborators when my files are migrated?

Yes. Although permissions will be migrated and collaborators will continue to have access, only the owner may see an email notification about access to migrated files.

What will happen to co-owned files?

Files will be moved based on their ownership in Box. Co-owned files always have an actual owner; thus, co-owned files will be migrated at the same time as the other files belonging to that owner.

Will my folder, file, and sharing permissions be the same after the migration?

Yes, mostly.

Important:
Permissions granted via an Active Directory group synced with Box will be preserved only if you are migrating to Microsoft OneDrive at IU. If you are migrating to Google at IU My Drive, Active Directory group permissions will not be preserved.
  • Neither service can be used as a "drop box" or with uploader-only permissions; as a result, these permissions will not migrate.
  • External shared links will not work after your files are migrated; you will need to re-share your content once your files are moved. Any external links within documents will become invalid.
  • Due to technical limitations, pending collaborations will not be migrated.
    Note:
    Any change in permissions will be logged within "Flagged Share" in your post-migration report.

How will permissions be carried over from IU Box to OneDrive and Google My Drive?

Box OneDrive Google My Drive
Co-Owner Full Editor
Editor Read write Editor
Previewer Uploader Read write Editor
Previewer Read Viewer
Viewer Read Viewer
Viewer Uploader Read write Editor

How can I imitate Box "Uploader" permissions in OneDrive and Google My Drive?

See Use Microsoft or Google Forms to receive uploaded files.

Will OneDrive and Google My Drive integrate with Canvas the same way Box did?

Currently, Google My Drive is integrated with Canvas. Instructors can link to Google My Drive documents in Pages and Assignments. Students can submit from Google if the faculty member allows Google My Drive submissions. Instructors also can create direct assignments in Google with Google Assignments. For more, see:

UITS is developing a custom Google integration in Canvas for course folders to replicate the Box Course Folders tool.

A Canvas integration for Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is available, but testing has shown it to be less than satisfactory, so UITS has chosen not to enable it. Microsoft has been working on an integration of Microsoft Teams that may provide a better experience. When the integration is released, UITS will test it and potentially enable it in Canvas. Microsoft Teams meetings are integrated already in Canvas, but they do not facilitate file sharing.

Where will existing Canvas Box folders be migrated?

Existing Canvas Box folders will be migrated to a dedicated group account's Google My Drive. For more information, see You do not have sufficient permission to view this document..

Can I maintain a Box account associated with my IU email address for collaborations outside of IU?

If you need to maintain a Box account that's associated with your IU email address (for school- or work-related collaborations outside of Indiana University), you can convert your IU Box account to a personal "lite" account hosted by Box.com. To request conversion of your IU Box account, fill out and submit the Convert your IU Box account to a Box.com account form before June 30, 2021. For more, see ARCHIVED: Create a Box.com account with your IU email address.

What happens to my files when I retire?

When you retire from IU, what happens to your data depends on your status and the storage service.

  • Faculty: Retired faculty have access to both Google and Microsoft, so they will retain access to data in either location.
  • Staff: Retired staff retain access to Google, but because they are not licensed for , they do not retain access to OneDrive. For this reason, retired staff will have their Box accounts migrated to Google regardless of their choice on the Box survey. There is an exception for retirees who maintain an active status (for example, "Hourly"); such retirees will still have access to and can have their Box data migrated there.

If I have a question that is not answered here, what do I do next?

Contact the Support Center for further assistance.