How to get 10 GB of online storage for your Mac using the Box app

When online storage is mentioned the companies that spring to mind are Microsoft, Google and Dropbox, but there are others and Box for example, has 41 million users. Here's how to join them.

Apple's cloud storage solution is iCloud, but you only get 5 GB of space for free and most of this will be used up by backups of the iPhone and iPad, storage for apps and so on.

You could add more storage and it is quite cheap compared to some services, but iCloud does not work well with other computers and devices. It is a bit awkward on a Windows PC and even worse with an Android phone. Apple services work best only when every bit of kit is bought from Apple.

Box on the other hand, is designed to work across platforms and it is just as easily accessed on a Mac as on a PC, iPhone, iPad, and Android phone or tablet. It is available everywhere.

Sign up for Box

The amount of storage that is provided for free is pretty good and there is 10 GB available when you sign up for Box. The Personal Pro plan is more than I would personally pay for online storage and 1 TB of online storage from OneDrive is cheaper and Microsoft throws in a copy of the latest version of Office too. That seems a better deal, but on the other hand Box provides a better deal for free.

Download Box for Mac

There are 11 app downloads for Box and they include Mac, iPhone, iPad, PC and Android versions.

The installation is slightly unusual because it is a direct download from the website instead of from the Mac App Store. When the app is first run a message pops up to say that a system extension is blocked.

You just have to click the button to open System Preferences and authorise it. It is just Apple being cautious with third party applications and the message does not appear again.

Mount Box like a drive

Box is not like other online storage and it works in a different way to OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and iCloud.

A folder appears on the desktop when the Box app is run and this is because it is mounted like a removeable external drive. It does not create a folder on the disk that is synced with online storage and the Box folder is more like an external drive icon.

Open it and you can browse the files but instead of being local, they are remote. When you want to quit using Box the removeable drive eject/unmount icon is must be clicked. It prompts you to close any open files before quitting.

Some local storage is used and the app caches files that are copied to Box or are opened from Box. What it does not do is store the whole 10 GB of online storage on the Mac's disk, as other apps do. This makes it suitable for Macs with small drives, such as the 128 GB or 256 GB SSDs that are in some MacBook models at the cheaper end of the range.

Box can therefore be used to extend the amount of storage available, whereas OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and iCloud all use local storage to mirror the drive.

Box adds a menu bar icon and this is used to open a search box. It looks similar to Spotlight, but it searches Box storage instead of the Mac's storage.

Related: Mount cloud storage on the Mac's desktop like a local drive

Limitations of Box storage

Files are all stored remotely (apart from some caching of files in use), and this has consequences. Some files on the Mac's disk are not actually files but are packages. They are really folders that contain multiple files and subfolders. TextEdit and Pages documents are packages for example and they cannot be copied to the Box storage.

Most apps do not create packages, they create files and this means that Box storage works for most apps and files. It is just a few Apple apps that are incompatible.

Files are stored remotely in the cloud and so when a file in the Box folder is clicked to open it, it takes longer because it must be downloaded first.

Quick Look only works on those files that have previously been accessed. Select a file in Finder and press the spacebar and normally the file contents are displayed in a popup window. This does not work with Box's remotely stored files, but if a file has been accessed then it can be displayed from the cached version.

If you wanted to view a photo for example, you would have to double click it to open it in Preview rather than using Quick Look.

Summing up

Box provides a generous amount of free storage and it is mounted like a removeable drive, which uses minimal space on the Mac's internal drive. This makes it good for MacBooks with limited storage.

Files can be accessed on other computers and devices just as easily as on the Mac, which is useful. They can also be accessed at the Box website using a web browser on any computer phone or tablet. A useful bonus is that you can link your Google account and then use Google Docs to create and edit documents stored on Box.

There are some limitations, but Box online storage could be useful for freeing up to 10 GB of disk space by archiving seldom used files on it.