Box: Transferring Ownership of a File or Folder


Box is a cloud content management and file-sharing service for businesses. Users can determine how their content can be shared with other users. Users may invite others to view and/or edit an account's shared files, upload documents and photos to shared files, upload documents and photos to a shared file's folder, and give other users rights to view shared files.

Only active students and employees have access to Box. For more information regarding Auburn alumni and Box accounts, visit the Knowledge Base article at aub.ie/gradchanges. For more information regarding Auburn retirees and Box accounts, visit the Knowledge Base article at aub.ie/retirees.

Your Auburn Box account can be accessed in the following ways:


Transferring Ownership of a Box File or Folder

Box offers many levels of permissions, ranging from uploader to owner.  Permission levels control the degree to which other users can edit, download, save, or otherwise alter or interact with files. 

To transfer ownership, you must be listed as the owner, not the co-owner, of the folder or file. You also must make one of your collaborators the new owner of its parent folder. Each Box folder can only have one official Owner. When you transfer ownership to someone else, you become an Editor on the folder. When you transfer ownership of a folder, you are also transferring ownership of all of its contents (subfolders and files).

Instructions for transferring ownership of a file or folder in Box are found below. Note: Box content ownership can also be transferred to a Box admin account within a department, if desired. To do so, you would follow the same steps listed below using the email address of the departmental Box owner account as the Owner.

1. Navigate to auburn.box.com. Login with your Auburn credentials (username and password).

2. Open the file or folder you wish to transfer ownership of. Note: Before you transfer ownership of a folder or file, the user/account you are transferring ownership to will need to be added as a collaborator. Instructions for inviting collaborators are found in the Knowledge Base article Box: Sharing Links and Inviting Collaborators.

3. In the top right corner, click the 3 horizontal dots, hover over More Actions, and click Manage Collaborators.

Box manage collaborators

4. On the Collaborators page, locate the person to whom you want to transfer ownership. In the permissions column, click the down arrow next to the permission level. Select "Owner." 

5. An alert will pop up explaining that once you transfer ownership, you will become an Editor. Click "Okay" to complete the transfer. The new owner will receive a notification about the ownership transfer. Once ownership is transferred, the file or folder will no longer count against your storage quota.

More information on transferring folder ownership can be found in at this Box Support Site.

Related Links