How to Move Box to Google Drive (and Into a Shared Drive)

To move Box to Google Drive, copy the files across with a tool that reads Box and writes to Drive, then check them before you close the Box account. Downloading from Box by hand is the slow part. Select more than one file and Box builds a zip on its server first, which takes a long time for a big folder and can time out.

There are three routes:

• An organization moving every user can use Google's own admin tool. Google Workspace Migrate lists Box as a source^[1].
• Hosted migration services do the copy on their servers, so your files and account access pass through them.
• A desktop app copies on your own computer. This guide uses Blober, which reads each Box file and streams it to Google Drive without a zip.

Blober connects to Box and to Google Drive with developer credentials that you create in your own accounts, so set aside some time for this part:

• Box: create a Box app in the Box developer console and enter its client ID and secret in Blober. The Box setup guide walks through it.
• Google Drive: create an OAuth client in Google Cloud and give Blober its JSON file. The Google Drive setup guide walks through it.

You do this once. After that, the workflow can run as often as you need.

1. Create a workflow. Choose Box as the source and select the folders you want, or the whole Box.
2. Choose Google Drive as the destination. Pick a folder in My Drive, for example From Box, or a Shared Drive folder under Shared With Me.
3. Keep deduplication on Skip if a file with the same name exists, the default.
4. Start the transfer.

Each file streams from Box to Google Drive through your computer, so you don't need disk space for the whole Box. If the transfer stops, resume the task and it carries on from the files already finished.

On a work or school account, the Shared Drive folders that you can edit appear in Blober under Shared With Me. Choose one as the destination, and Blober copies Box straight into the Shared Drive.

Blober lists the folders inside a Shared Drive, not the drive itself. For a new, empty Shared Drive, create a folder in it in Google Drive first, then choose that folder.

• Files and the folder structure. Empty folders aren't recreated.
• Office files stay Office files. A .docx from Box is saved in Drive as a .docx. Open it in Google Docs or convert it later if you want.
• The current version of each file. Box's older versions, comments, shared links and permissions stay in Box.
• Folders other people shared with you in Box, since Box shows them in your normal file list.

Box bookmarks (web links) aren't files, so they don't come across. Blober has no special handling for Box Notes or Box Canvas. Open a few after the copy, and export any that matter from Box first.

The created and modified dates in Drive are the day of the upload.

• Google Drive accepts up to 750 GB of uploads per account per day. Past that, uploads fail. Resume the task the next day, and it tries the failed files again.
• Box limits how much you can transfer per month. If a large transfer stops partway, the monthly limit may be the reason.
• Your computer stays on until the transfer finishes.

Compare file counts on both sides for the folders that matter most, and open a sample of files in Drive.

Running the same workflow again is a cheap check. With skip-by-name on, files already in Drive are skipped, and anything that failed the first time gets another try.

The same steps work with OneDrive or Dropbox as the destination. OneDrive needs an Azure app registration, and Dropbox needs an access token or a Dropbox app key. See the OneDrive and Dropbox setup guides.

Can I move Box to Google Drive without downloading everything first? Yes. Blober streams each file from Box to Google Drive. The bytes pass through your computer, but no full copy is stored on it.

Can Blober copy straight into a Google Shared Drive? Yes. The Shared Drive folders that you can edit appear under Shared With Me. Choose one as the destination.

Will Word and Excel files turn into Google Docs? No. They stay .docx and .xlsx files. Google Drive opens them, and you can convert them later.

What happens to Box Notes? Blober has no special handling for them. Check a few after the copy, and export the ones you need from Box.

Will running it twice make duplicates? Not with the default setting. A file with the same name in the same Drive folder is skipped.

Is there a size limit? Google Drive takes up to 750 GB of uploads a day per account, and Box has a monthly transfer limit. Spread a very large move over several days.

• Download All Your Box Files Without the ZIP-and-Time-Out Trap
• Moving Out of Box: Graduation, Job Change, or a Closing Account
• OneDrive or Google Drive: moving between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
• Consolidating Multiple Cloud Accounts Into One