If you are planning your company’s Box to Google Shared Drives migration, this guide can be a great starting point to understand the process and steps involved in the entire journey. This article will walk you through everything you need to know to transfer files and folders from Box to Google Shared Drives.
1. Introduction
Having a cloud suite such as Google Workspace with a wide range of apps that cater to all business needs outweighs the need to stick to a standalone cloud like Box. Many businesses that plan a Box to Google Shared Drives migration as part of embracing the Google Workspace cloud suite often prioritize the benefits that come with the move, such as cost savings, eliminating the complexities of multiple license structures, and more.
If your company is also planning to switch to Google Shared Drives from Box for any such use case, your IT team must have a proper strategy and work with the right migration service provider.
Moving your entire team or your organization’s data from one cloud storage to another seems straightforward but can be quite a challenge in real-life scenarios. To ensure a successful Box to Google Shared Drives migration with no failures along the road, it is best to partner with a reliable and Google-trusted migration solutions provider.
We, at CloudFuze, can help your company migrate the entire Box data to Google Shared Drives securely, quickly, and in a structured way. Check out our Gartner reviews and learn how we have helped businesses migrate successfully over the years.
Watch the video below to learn how to transfer files from Box to Google Shared Drives account by following simple steps.
3. Box to Google Shared Drives Business Migration Challenges
From the images below, it is clear that the way files are stored and accessed in Box is completely different from that of Google Shared Drives, which many challenges during the Box to Google Shared Drives file transfer.
Figure 1: All files and folders are stored in “All Files” in Box
Figure 2: All folders and files stored in a drive-in “Shared Drives”
Below are the challenges that organizations face when migrating to Google Shared Drives from Box.
1. Mapping the Users and Path
As simple as it seems, mapping source users to destination users can be quite challenging, especially if change of mappings paths are to be made.
2. Migrating and Matching All Permissions Appropriately
The permissions in any cloud storage are different from others. Similarly, Box and Google Shared Drives have a difference in permissions usage, and how you match the permissions while you migrate Box files to Google Shared Drives is challenging.
3. Migrating All Types of Files
Being a user of Box, you might have created, worked, shared, and received different types of files where a few are only supported by Box, such as:
- Box Notes
- Word Document
- PowerPoint Presentation
- Excel Spreadsheet
- Google Docs
- Google Slides
- Google Sheets
- Pages Document
- Keynote Presentation
- Numbers Spreadsheet
Migrating all types of files to Google Shared Drive in an organized way with all the permissions, versions, comments, and timestamps is crucial and must be done with a systematic approach.
4.Google Shared Drive’s Restriction for No. Of Items
A shared drive can contain a maximum of 400,000 items, including folders, files, and shortcuts, a limit set by Google. If you have more than 400,000 items in Box, the exceeded limit won’t get migrated.
5. Folder Limits
A shared drive folder can support up to 20 nested folders, and folders exceeding the limit won’t get migrated from Box or any source cloud storage.
However, the CloudFuze cloud data migration tool can help you overcome these challenges and make your move from Box to Google Shared Drives smooth and secure.
4. How Can CloudFuze Solve These Challenges?
As it is evident, the journey of switching to Google Shared Drives from Box is not without its challenges. But with us as your migration partner, you can overcome all the challenges that come along the way and make the transition secure and seamless. With our non-disruptive migration methodologies, we can help you transfer Box data to Google Shared Drives without interrupting your day-to-day business operations.
Let us see how our Box to Google Shared Drives migration tool overcomes each of the challenges discussed above.
1. Mapping the Users and Path
To transfer the files to appropriate folders in Google Shared Drives with the permissions, versions, comments, and timestamps, we use CSV mapping, where users and root folder/file path in the source are mapped to the destination users and drive path as shown below.
Table 1: CSV Mapping
Contact our migration professionals to understand more about how the mapping is done when you migrate Box to Google Shared Drives.
2. Migrating and Matching All Permissions Appropriately
Our tool matches the file permissions of Box with Google Shared Drives as shown below:
| Box Permissions | Shared Drive permissions |
|---|---|
| Co-Owner | Content Manager |
| Editor | Content Manager |
| Viewer | View |
| Previewer | View |
| Uploader | View |
| Viewer Uploader | Contributor |
| Owner | Manager |
Table 2: Matching Box file-sharing permissions with Shared Drive permissions
3. Migrating All Types of Files
Our tool can migrate all types of Box files to Google Shared Drives. The table below gives you a clear picture of the format in which files will be available after the successful transfer of Box files to Google Shared Drives.
| Box Supported File Format | Shared Drive File Format (after migration) |
|---|---|
| .boxnote | .docx |
| .docx | .docx |
| .xlsx | .xlsx |
| .gSheet | .gSheet |
| .gSlides | .gSlides |
| .pages | .pages |
| .key | .key |
| .numbers | .numbers |
Table 3: Matching Box file formats with Shared Drive file formats
All the files are migrated as-is except for the Box Note files and Box Note Form Templates as they are Box-specific file formats and not supported by any other cloud. Hence, our tool converts them to Word documents.
4. Item Volume Restrictions on Google Shared Drives
If your source Box account has more than 400,000 items, including folders, files, and shortcuts, we create a new shared drive and migrate the items that exceed the limit into it.
5. Folder Limits
While a shared drive folder can support up to 20 nested folders, we create a “Long File Name” link in the 20th folder, leading to the 21st folder. This way, we overcome the limitations set by Google Workspace for our users.
7. Steps for Box to Google Shared Drives Migration
Before you move Box to Google Shared Drives, there are some essential prerequisites to consider. Here are the pre-requisites to transfer files from Box to Google Shared Drives:
- A CloudFuze account (Enterprise trial available on request)
- Box admin login credentials
- Google Workspace (G Suite) admin login credentials
Migrating to Google Shared Drives from Box using the CloudFuze tool involves several steps. Here is a step-by-step process to perform the migration using our tool:
Step 1: Log into CloudFuze
To transfer data from Box to Shared Drives, you must have a CloudFuze account.
Open CloudFuze webapp and create an account. Cloudfuze offers a free trial account for users who wish to test the platform. Enterprise users with large and complex data migration needs can reach out to our migration team for a demo or quote.
Step 2: Add Box Business or Box Enterprise Account
You need to add and authorize your company’s Box account to CloudFuze to be able to move Box data to Shared Drives.
All you need to do is click on the Box logo in the business clouds list and enter the Box admin login credentials.
Step 3: Enter Box Admin Login Credentials
Enter the Box’s super admin login details and click on the Authorize button.
Step 4: Review Account Permissions and Provide Access
The following is the list of all permissions CloudFuze needs in order to map and copy Box data to Google Shared Drives.
Click on the Grant Access to Box button to complete the cloud addition process.
Step 5: Now, Add Shared Drives Account
Click on the Shared Drives logo in the business clouds list. Since this is Box to Google Shared Drives migration, we need to click on the Shared Drives logo.
If it is a Box to Google Drive migration, select the G Suite logo instead.
Step 6: Add and Authorize Google Account
Enter your Google Workspace account login details and authorize it the same way we authorized the Box account earlier.
Step 7: Verify Whether Clouds Added
Go to the Clouds section by clicking on the Clouds logo. Then, check the Manage Clouds tab. You should be able to see both Box and Google Shared Drives accounts successfully added there. The cloud addition process sets a solid foundation to migrate Box to Google Shared Drives with complete success.
Step 8: Visit the Team Migration Panel
Click on the Team Migration icon in the navigation menu on the left to copy files and folders from Box to Google Shared Drives.
Step 9:Select The Source and Destination Cloud
Choose Box as the source account and Shared Drives as the destination account, as you want to move Box data to Google Shared Drives.
Step 10: Create a CSV Mapping with the List of Users
With CSV mapping, you can create custom user mappings to transfer data from Box to Google Shared Drives in specific ways as per your IT team’s migration strategy. Make sure to upload the CSV file with the user mapping to the CloudFuze webapp.
This step can be confusing for first-time users of CloudFuze. Keep in mind that CloudFuze has a dedicated migration team that assists IT admins, during every step of the migration.
Step 11: Download in the CSV Format
Download in the CSV format and then upload again to CloudFuze. The CSV file then populates the list of users for migration.
Step 12: Select The Users to Migrate
Click on the users that you want to migrate from Box to Google Shared Drives accounts. There is no upper limit on how many users can be migrated. However, for this demo purpose, we have selected one user to demonstrate the tool’s capabilities to transfer files from Box to Shared Drives account.
Step 13: Choose Migration Options
In this migration configuration page, you can give the migration job a name. You can enter additional email addresses for notifications.
Apart from the straightforward approach to transfer Box files to Google Shared Drives, you can also migrate Shared Links, External Shares, sub-folder permissions, and in-file comments by ticking the appropriate option.
Step 14: Preview and Click on the Migration
Preview the migration options and click on the Start Migration. This initiates the transfer of Box files to Google Shared Drives.
Step 15: Box to Google Shared Drives Migration Is in Progress
CloudFuze displays the status as In-Progress during the Box to Google Shared Drives file transfer in process. In addition to this, you will also receive regular updates on the migration status in your email address.
Step 16: All the Data Has Been Migrated
Once the transfer of data from Box to Google Shared Drives is completed, the status will be changed to Processed.
8. Box to Google Shared Drives Migration FAQs
1. How Much Does the Migration Cost?
The cost for Box to Google Shared Drives migration depends on various factors such as data size and features you choose. Contact us and get a customized quote for your business to migrate data from Box to Google Shared Drives.
2. Where Do I Check the Data Size of the Team/Organization in Box?
Open your admin box account and click on “Admin Console”.
Figure 3: Box Admin Account
Now a window opens where you can see the number of users and data size of your team/business.
3. Can the Team Continue Working on Files While Migrating From Box to Google Shared Drives?
Yes! The amount of time it takes to migrate files is determined by the number and size of files you’re migrating. In the meantime, the team members can continue working on the files, which will be migrated later through the “Delta Migration” feature in CloudFuze.
4. Can You Migrate Box Note and Box Note From Template?
Though Box Note and Box Note From Template are Box-only supported files, CloudFuze migrates them to Google Shared Drives successfully in the form of word documents.
5. Will the folders and files look different after migrating to Google Shared Drives?
Even though the design and features of Google Shared Drives are different from the Box, CloudFuze migrates the folders and files with the same names and same file types except for the Box Note and Box Note Form Template (migrates it to word document).
