Where apps hide your files

Box Drive: folder, cache and logs

Updated 2026-10-28 · 5 min read

Box Drive has three separate places on a Mac: the folder you browse, a cache of downloaded copies, and a logs folder. Box documents all three, and the cache has rules for how big it gets and when it empties.

The three locations

From Box's own article for administrators:

~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box
~/Library/Application Support/Box/Box/cache
~/Library/Logs/Box/Box

• Box-Box is the Box folder you see in Finder under Locations. It is controlled by macOS, so Box says its path could change without notice.
• cache holds the local copies Box Drive downloads when you open or add files.
• The logs folder holds Box Drive's log files, which Box support may ask for.

The app itself is /Applications/Box.app. Box Drive is not installed on the Mac used for this guide, so these paths come from Box's documentation, not from a local check.

To open any of them, choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) and paste the path. From Terminal:

open ~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box

Older installs used ~/Box

Before Box moved to Apple's File Provider approach on recent macOS versions, Box Drive used a plain ~/Box folder (the older kernel-extension mode, and the path some Box install pages still quote). A Box Community answer gives ~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box for File Provider mode and ~/Box for the kernel-based mode, so scripts that hardcode ~/Box need the new path. In File Provider mode, Box no longer appears under Favorites or on the Desktop by default, though you can add it back. Look under Locations in the Finder sidebar.

Box's admin article lists the cache path above but, for File Provider mode, measures local usage on the Box-Box folder itself (see below), and notes that on a Mac, macOS manages the caching. Box community threads also mention an fpeShared folder growing large, without giving its path. If the cache path above does not exist on your Mac, look for Box's other folders by name:

ls ~/Library/Group\ Containers | grep -i box

This lists folder names only.

How the cache behaves

The following comes from Box's article for administrators:

Rule	Detail
Size limit	50% of available local disk space or 25 GB, whichever is smaller. On a Mac you cannot change it.
Age	Cached files are removed after 30 days without modification. Box documents a MaximumCacheAge setting (in days) to change this, but does not recommend shortening it.
When full	Files that have gone longest without modification go first.
Offline files	Files you marked for offline access do not count toward the limit.

Box also says caching cannot be turned off completely. A Box Community reply adds that Box Drive needs at least 1 GB of free space to work.

What is safe and what is not

Box says not to use or modify files in the cache folder. Open your files through the Box-Box folder instead. Do not drag files out of cache or tidy it by hand.

To free space, the supported route is to log out of Box Drive: Box's admin article says logging out deletes all cached files (offline files and offline preferences included), unsupported files and all log files. Before you do, look for Problem Items in Box Drive and move anything listed out of your Box folder, so unsynced changes are not lost (a Box Community tip). Then log back in. On a Mac, deleting Box Drive does not delete the cache; Box ships a script with the Mac version, uninstall_box_drive, that removes it.

Checking how much space it uses

du -sh ~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box

Box suggests this command for local usage in File Provider mode. It reports what is on disk, which can be much less than the size of your whole Box account, because online-only files take almost no space.

Backing up or moving to a new Mac

Do not back up the cache. Your files live in Box, so a new Mac needs only Box Drive and a login. Anything you want to keep offline must be marked for offline access again. Files that exist only locally, such as items in Problem Items, are the ones to copy out first.

When Box Drive looks empty or stuck

If the Box-Box folder is missing from Finder, check that Box Drive is running (look for its icon in the menu bar) and that you are logged in. A Box Community answer says the folder shows under Locations in File Provider mode, so look in the sidebar and not under Favorites. If a script or app cannot find files, point it at ~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box. A Box Community answer also notes that in this mode, files dragged in from your local disk are moved rather than copied, so hold ⌥ while dragging if you want to keep the original.

Box Edit is separate

Box Edit, the edit-in-place tool, uses its own folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Box/Box Edit, with files in a Documents folder, according to a university IT guide that quotes Box's steps (not Box's own documentation). It is not the Box Drive cache.

Why a search will not show these

All three paths sit in ~/Library, so Spotlight and Finder searches leave them out. The CloudStorage folder is also protected by macOS.

Finding Box files by name

Typing a file's name into Everywhere finds it in ~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box, online-only or not, once Everywhere has Full Disk Access, since macOS protects CloudStorage. Box's own folders under ~/Library/Application Support/Box and the logs are indexed without it, so typing Box Edit or uninstall_box_drive works from the start. It searches file names only, not the text inside documents. ⌘↵ reveals the result in Finder.

Common questions

Where is the Box Drive folder on a Mac?

At ~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box in File Provider mode, shown under Locations in Finder. The older kernel-based mode used ~/Box.

Where is the Box Drive cache on a Mac?

Box documents it as ~/Library/Application Support/Box/Box/cache, and says not to use or modify files in it. For File Provider mode, Box measures local usage with du -sh ~/Library/CloudStorage/Box-Box.

How do I clear the Box Drive cache?

Check Problem Items, then log out of Box Drive, which Box says deletes cached files, offline files and logs. Uninstalling the app alone does not remove the cache.

How big can the Box Drive cache get?

Box says the limit is 50% of available local disk space or 25 GB, whichever is smaller, and it cannot be changed on a Mac. Files marked for offline access do not count toward it.