Issues uploading files larger than 3MB to Box

Troubleshooting
1

Hi,
I’m using the free version and have PC software installed.
I’ve noticed that larger files (>3MB) are put on the waiting list, but eventually get synced. However files that are larger than 7MB never get synced, they just keep going back and forth between sync list and waiting list. But when I upload the same file directly to my linked box.com account the files get in there properly. There is nothing special with these file, no prohibited characters etc.
Is that due to some bug in the software that it cannot handle bigger files?

2

Hi @mr108,
I just uploaded a few 100MB files to my Box account to test and I didn’t have an issue. Are you seeing this will all files larger than 3MB in all folders?

Can you reproduce the issue again and then send a diagnostic from the odrive menu and let me know when it has been sent?

3

Thanks @Tony,
I just tried a quick upload with a 22MB file and it keeps alternating between waiting and syncing.
Despite that the syncing is going on ( I can see that the upload volume has increased) the display in the syncing changes stays at 36%
Not all the files bigger than 3 MB behave in this way, but the bigger ones above 7-9BMB often do.
I’ve sent the diagnostics now.

4

Hi @mr108,
I took a look at odrive is experiencing network connection failures when trying to upload some of the files. this would indicate a network instability or disruption between your computer and the Box API servers.

Are you a new odrive user, or have you been using odrive for a while and this issue just came up?

Do you see the same upload problem when uploading these files to Box via the odrive web client (https://www.odrive.com)?

Another thing to try:
If you create a Space against your Box link and then try to upload to that, do you see the same problem?
To test this:

  • Go to: https://www.odrive.com/account/myodrive?catid=spaces
  • Click on + Share Storage
  • Name your Space and select your Box link as the target. You can leave the Members section blank.
  • Click Share
  • Go to your desktop client and open the Spaces folder (it may be a placeholder so it will be named Spaces.cloudf)
  • You should see the Shared Space you just created there.
  • Try to upload the files that are giving you trouble here and see if you experience the same issue.
5

Hi @Tony,
I just recently started to use odrive. The same problem is when using web client.
But I’ll try using Space and will let you know.

6

Hi @mr108,
If you find that you have the same issue with Spaces, can you create a Space to a test fold in your dropbox and invite me to it? I’ll direct message you additional info.

7

Hi @Tony,
So now I tested to upload a 22MB file in 4 ways:

  1. Directly into odrive folder. It starts with 36% and in alternates between syncing and waiting but does not complete even when the upload volume goes up to 37MB, so I stopped and sent the first diagnostics

  2. Using the web page - it failed, said ‘unable to upload’

  3. Crated a Space and it succeeded although the upload volume on that one was a bit strange as it was much more than I expected - sent the second diagnostics

  4. Repeated upload to Space again with another 24MB file - it stayed in syncing mode all the time and it shows properly the syncing progress in % until 100%; used upload volume 26Mb which may be reasonable; sent the third diagnostics.

Now, the files in the Box drive end up in proper folder, BUT the files in the odrive stay in the spaces folder and not even in the proper subfolder (Books), so how do I get them into the proper subfolder after the upload is finished?

8

Hi @Tony,
Another big problem I’ve noticed when uploading directly to odrive folders is that when the big files are put on waiting and then resuming again few times, that process is using up MB volume, so the resuming is not starting again from when the upload interrupted but from 0, that’s a BIG problem since I have a limited bandwidth usage per day.

9

Hi @mr108,

I’m glad to hear that you are having better success with the Spaces feature. I am wondering if there is some sort of instability between you and the Box nodes that you are hitting. With Spaces you end up routing through some of our own servers (all encrypted passthrough) so it can provide a more stable connect from your system to ours and then to Box.

Can you explain this? A Space can be created at any folder in your storage, including the root of your Box account. Maybe you can provide a screenshot or two of what you are seeing and what you expect/want?

This is currently how the upload works. It will retry individual chunks during transfer (which may explain why you see a slightly larger size transferred), but cannot restart a transfer from a previous point.

10

Hello @Tony

I tested again with a folder with 3 subfolders and created a Space for the entire main folder. Now it’s more clear for me how it works. I uploaded the entire main folder and in the Spaces folders there are the actual files and in the main box folder there are created the placeholders (see the file ‘2 events.txt’).

Entire%20main%20folder Spaces%20test%20entire%20folder

So it means that I would have to always work with the Spaces if I want to get the bigger files uploaded properly, right? Or is there something that you can fix so that the uploads will work properly even when using the main box folder?

11

Hi @Tony,

This made me think to test Dropbox using the same large 24MB file. I worked and without putting the file on waiting. So yes, Box service maybe is inferior in some respects.
I read your article here:

and your test results confirmed my experience. The only attractive with Box is free 10GB storage compared with only 2GB with Dropbox. So it’s another reason for me to put a strong vote to integrate MEGA with odrive.
Right now I feel like shifting away from Box.
Thanks a lot for your help!

12

Hi @mr108

In your case it looks like you would need to use Spaces, where the transfer proxies through our servers and provides a more stable connection. When using the direct to Box method the client performs the upload the same as every other destination (including Spaces), but it is going direct to Box’s servers and there seems to be some instability there between you and the Box server node(s) you are hitting.

Do you use Google Drive? They offer 15GB. Keep in mind that odrive will allow you to link as many accounts as you want, so you can link Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, etc. You can even link multiples of those (2 Google Drive accounts, 2 Dropbox accounts, etc.).

No problem! Glad to help!

13

Hi @Tony,

Yes, I switched to Google Drive and it’s faster and more reliable, even 50MB file was not held up on waiting.

1 Like
14

@Tony,
This forum interface is really well designed! Is it something that your company created? Or is it a setup available on the market?

15

Hi @mr108,
Glad to hear Google Drive is working well, too!

The forum software we use is discourse: https://www.discourse.org/

The software is free and open source, if you want to host it yourself. They also have paid options for hosting it for you.