Why trust GreenbotThe new version of Box for Android has a lot of new features baked in, but while the document file previewer is cool, it doesn’t help you get real work done.
If you want to work with files, Box plays nicer with apps featured in its app directory, OneCloud. However, even when I did use those preferred apps, syncing offline files back to the cloud was a less than reliable on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 running Android 4.1.2 lly Bean.
ckily, there is a rock-solid way to edit those offline documents—using an editor of your choice— get them back online by manually uploading files.
Store files offline
First, we need to get our files to be stored locally on our device. In Box, navigate to the folder where the file you want is located. Tap hold on the file until checkboxes appear to the left of the file names. You can go ahead check multiple files if you want to transfer multiple files at once.
Next, tap the menu button in the upper-right corner, then tap Make available offline. Your device will then download the selected file(s).
Choose Make available offline to have Box download the file for offline viewing editing.
ternatively, you can swipe left on the file you want to keep offline, then tap on the lightning bolt icon. You can do the same for entire folders, which can be useful for working on projects.
Box won’t generate previews offline, so if you want a preview to go with your file, be sure to preview the file while you still have an internet connection.
it your files offline
Once your files have been downloaded, you can open edit them whenever you like.
Navigate to the containing folder tap on the file you want to open in the list on the left of the screen. Offline files will have a blue checkmark next to them. If you have a preview for the file downloaded, the preview will appear in the preview panel to the right.
Tap the open file button on the top bar to the right (if you’re using an Android phone, the icon will be on the bottom left). The ‘Open in…’ popup will present you with a list of suggested apps from Box’s OneCloud ecosystem if you swipe left on the small box. For a Microsoft Office document (docx), Box suggests Docs To Go Office Suite 7 o, both of which work well with Box while online.
Box’s ‘Open file’ menu popup will suggest that you install use preferred apps, some of which work better than other for online editing.
ile offline, the application you choose doesn’t matter much, as long as you can save the file somewhere on your device. Tap Open with other app… choose what app you want to use.
For this example, I went with ’s Quickoffice.
You can use any compatible app to edit your files, though some work better than others when working with online files.
From there, edit the document. en you’re finished, you need to save the document.
In Quickoffice, tap Done followed by the disk icon. Tap Save as to save the document to the location of your choice, making sure it’ll be easy to find later. If you have a Documents folder, that will do nicely.
You’ll need to save the file using the same file name, so Box can track changes. If you don’t, Box will treat the document as a new file.
Save your document in an easily recognizable place. This will make uploading deleting the document much faster.
Once you save the file, hit the back arrow to get back to Box.
Upload the updated copy
en you’re online again, you can upload the copy of the file you’ve been working on.
If the document preview is still open, tap the back arrow again to close the document preview. Next, tap the plus sign on the top bar to the right (or bottom left on an Android phone), select Upload files.
Use the popup dialog to navigate to the folder where you saved your document. Check the box to the right of the file’s name tap Choose.
You can upload multiple files at once with Box’s upload dialog.
In the next dialog, make sure that you’re uploading the document to the correct folder (in my case, I just used “l Files”). If you’ve named your file correctly, you should see your document with a yellow background below the folder name, a warning that “A file in ‘[Folder Name]’ has the same name.” This is what we want, as we’re replacing a file with a new version.
Make sure that the upload location for the file is the same folder as the original.
Tap Upload one more dialog will pop up. Tap Upload as a new version to overwrite the old file with the new.
To save your document as a new version, you’ll have to overwrite the old file.
Update clean up
After the document is uploaded, tap on it again in Box. A bar will appear across the preview saying that the offline file is out of date. Since we didn’t upload the file that Box saved (we used “Save as” to create our own), we need to update the offline file.
Tap Update now to update the file for offline use.
Box will alert you if your offline files are out of date if you try to preview them. Outdated offline files are also marked by an orange down arrow in the file list.
There’s no need to keep the file we saved after editing anymore. Using My Files, navigate to where you saved the file from Quickoffice, delete it.
Clean up the unneeded file to save storage space on your Android device.
You’re all set! Now you can feel confident working on your documents anywhere.
