Box + AudioBox integration.
Box is a personal, business and enterprise storage platform to store your media files.
AudioBox score:
7/10
The score is calculated taking into consideration how many features the remote platform has to work with media files, including streaming/sync speed, reliability, API and how well it integrates with AudioBox.
Requirements.
- A valid Box account.
- An AudioBox account with a valid subscription.
- Media Files on your Box account in the /Media folder.
First steps.
- Get a Box account. Make sure the Box account is confirmed and that is working.
- Purchase any paid plan from AudioBox.
- Link your Box account through the Dashboard.
Preparing the sync.
The first time you run the sync, AudioBox will create, if it doesn't already exists, a
Media
folder in the root of your Box account. For performance and security reasons this is the only folder AudioBox will "look" into.
Make sure to copy or move all the media files you want to sync in this folder, otherwise the synchronization will come up empty and no files will be imported.
If the folder does not exists the sync will be performed, but it will only create the initial folder and send you an email with few instructions.
Extra: sync the Media folder to your computer.
By default the Media folder will appear only in the Box web interface.
In order to enable the sync of this folder to your own computer/device please log in the Box web interface and set the Media folder to "Sync to to Computer" and confirm the option. The Media folder will then have a blue icon.
Gotchas.
- The Box authorization lasts only for 14 days, therefore the account needs to be re-authenticated every so often.
- It is not recommended to perform file/folder operations on your Box account Media folder while a sync with AudioBox is in progress.
- The sync operation has been tweaked to be very fast but it may take a while. Do not attempt to resubmit the same job if you know one is already running.
- If something is not working check your notifications or your e-mail inbox. Make sure your email is working and up to date.
- Stream and sync may fail due to expired credentials. Credentials lasts about 14 days, so make sure you re-authenticate your account in case of weird errors.
Metadata Support.
Box does not extract metadata out of your media files and thus this information is not returned to us.
In this and other cases AudioBox works around this limitation by examining the file path: if it follows the iTunes convention AudioBox is able to write metatags during the sync.
| AudioBox Tag |
Box |
Workaround available* |
| Artist |
NO |
Path extraction by AudioBox |
| Album |
NO |
Path extraction by AudioBox |
| Genre |
NO |
NO |
| Title |
NO |
Path extraction by AudioBox |
| Duration (seconds) |
NO |
NO |
| Duration (formatted) |
NO |
NO |
| Year |
NO |
NO |
| Position |
NO |
Path extraction by AudioBox |
| Disc Number |
NO |
NO |
| Loved |
NO |
NO |
| Album Artist |
NO |
NO |
| Composer |
NO |
NO |
* If you are interested in automatic tagging, make sure your media files are organized this way:
Media/Artist/Album/01 Title.mp3
or use AudioBox Cloud.
Artworks.
Artworks are supported as long as your meta tags (artist/album) are correct and will be automatically downloaded and applied in AudioBox on file import.
- AudioBox will not physically parse your files to extract an embedded artwork.
- Artworks might be attached to the files on the AudioBox platform at a later stage after the sync.
Automatic synchronization.
AudioBox supports Box webhooks. When you make a change in your Media folder, Box and AudioBox will talk each other to reflect the changes directly on your AudioBox account, so you don't have to perform a full sync each time.
If this integration is not working please visit this page, press Remove on the left and re-authenticate. Make sure Shared Events are enabled.
Box tokens last only 14 days. If you don't re-authenticate after this timeframe webhooks will stop working.
Opening a file from Box with AudioBox.
From the Box web interface you can choose to open a file with AudioBox. What will happen is that, if you have the Cloud Web Player open, our system automatically switches to the Box playlist and start playing the selected file.
About further synchronizations.
AudioBox will not attempt to overwrite the already existing data in your AudioBox account if you change a file on Box. The policy is to preserve the custom edited metadata between syncs.
However it is entirely possible to delete and replace a file if Box flags the file as completely changed (moved to another folder, etc.).
What kind of files will be imported.
- aac (audio/aac)
- mp3 (audio/mpeg)
- m4a (audio/mp4)
- flac (audio/flac)
- mp4 (video/mp4)
- flv (video/x-flv)
- webm (video/webm)
This list will be expanded as we can reliably support other formats. Hidden/garbage and other files types will be discarded silently.
For more information about Apple Lossless encoded files check out the FAQ.
Common Special Operations
Removing all the synced media files.
Sign in your Dashboard and find the Actions button for this cloud drive. You will find the Empty button in the Actions dropdown.
This operation will not cause any harm to the files stored on the remote platform. It is recommended for the operation to finish before attempting another sync.
Unlinking accounts.
In order to unlink your remote account from AudioBox you need to visit the related permission page of the service.
Sign in your Dashboard and find the Actions button for this cloud drive. You will find an Unlink Account button in the Actions dropdown.
This will bring you to the dedicated server page where you can un-authorize the AudioBox app.
Once done, further operations (stream/sync) that interacts with this cloud drive from within AudioBox will fail and your authentication token will be deleted.
Re-Authenticating accounts.
You may need to re-authenticate your account with AudioBox in case of problems. For example when the service tells AudioBox your credentials are expired and re-authentication is required.
Sign in your Dashboard and find the Actions button for this cloud drive. You will find a Re-Authenticate Account button in the Actions dropdown.
Using the same remote account for multiple AudioBox accounts.
Multiple AudioBox account are against the Terms of Service. In any case AudioBox won't allow to link an already in-use service account into another AudioBox account.
