BOX sync agent status shows complete but folder icons show syncing

Box gave away 50GB of cloud storage space to non-paying members a while back and I figured I could use it to back up my Pictures and Music. Box works like Dropbox in the sense that it syncs everything in one directory on your computers hard drive to the cloud. After installing the sync agent software on my computer and syncing the various files and subfolders in my box directory, I got conflicting messages from the software. In the notification area, the sync agent status stated “Sync Complete” but the icons on each of the synced folders indicated some kind of error with a red icon.

[the problem]

  • In the notification area of windows, the Box sync agent shows sync status as 100% complete:
    box-net-sync-status-complete
  • However, when you look at the folder and file list inside the Box synced folder, many of the files/folders have this red icon:
    box-net-upload-issues

[the solution]

[step 1] Right click the Box Sync Agent icon in the notification area and select Advanced->Force Uploads… then wait for the progress bar to reach 100% in the status dialog.

box-net-sync-force-uploads

[step 2] If force upload / download doesn’t work, you can try this method which always works, but takes some time:

  1. Copy all folders/files from your box sync folder to a temporary directory (we’re backing things up just in case something didn’t sync properly to the cloud)
  2. Uninstall Box Sync
  3. Purge files in the following folders:
    •  c:users(yourusername)appdatatemp
    •  c:users(yourusername)appdataroamingbox sync
    •  c:users(yourusername)appdatalocalbox sync
  4. Reinstall box sync and re-sync to the cloud.

That’s it.