Download file from Box using file ID

Help and Support
1

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

rclone copyto can't read a file from Box using file ID

We have a substantial codebase that uses another program to read data from Box, and we need to migrate to using rclone. It often relies on reading a file directly using the file ID, rather than using a folder ID and file name. Before committing to a large refactor, I'm trying to figure out if rclone has this functionality or not.

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

rclone v1.68.2
- os/version: ubuntu 22.04 (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 5.14.0-427.57.1.el9_4.x86_64 (x86_64)
- os/type: linux
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.23.3
- go/linking: static
- go/tags: none

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Box

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

# this works
rclone copyto 'remote:testing_app_meta.yaml' --box-root-folder-id 194642947573 '/tmp/RtmpWHCXFV/wq0pdC3tts/testing_app_meta.yaml'

# this doesn't, but I'm wondering if there's any functionality like this
# 11402... is the file ID of testing_app_meta.yaml
rclone copyto 'remote:1140207799847' '/tmp/RtmpWHCXFV/wq0pdC3tts/testing_app_meta.yaml' -vv

Please run 'rclone config redacted' and share the full output. If you get command not found, please make sure to update rclone.

[remote]
type = box
token = XXX

A log from the command that you were trying to run with the -vv flag

2025/04/18 15:13:25 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.68.2" starting with parameters ["rclone" "copyto" "remote:1140207799847" "/tmp/RtmpWHCXFV/wq0pdC3tts" "-vv"]
2025/04/18 15:13:25 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "remote:1140207799847"
2025/04/18 15:13:25 DEBUG : Using config file from "/usr/home/ebrockmann/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/04/18 15:13:26 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "remote:1140207799847": pre-upload check: Error "access_denied_insufficient_permissions" (403): Access denied - insufficient permission
2

welcome to the forum,

well, nothing worse than a large refactor.

a workaround might be, write a simple function to lookup the filename(s) by id, using something like

rclone lsf remote: --format=pi --csv --files-only --box-root-folder-id=221848298276
testing_app_meta.yaml,1140207799847

or

lsjson remote: --files-only --box-root-folder-id=221848298276

or
https://rclone.org/rc/#operations-list

Copy files by ID for box backend #8346

box: please implement copyid #5150

might want to rclone selfupdate

3

Thank you for this information, it is definitely a possible workaround! lsjson + filtering for the input file ID would definitely get me the info I need. It looks like listing the files will be too much of a time lag right now because of how many files there are, but I will keep playing around with it!

4

welcome

one reason is that rclone box remotes lack suppport for ListR

can see that from rclone docs or by running

 rclone backend features box: | grep "ListR"
                "ListR": false,

with many backends such as gdrive, by default, every rclone user in the world shares the same client id+secret.
with leads to throttling and reduced performace.
the workaround is to create your own client id+secret.

this is what my box remote looks like

rclone config redacted box:
[box]
type = box
client_id = XXX
client_secret = XXX
token = XXX
5

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