How can I use Box to collaborate with an external institution?

An external party or institution is requesting I use Box to collaborate with them.

• Box

Penn State faculty and staff who approach an external party for a collaboration should utilize OneDrive or SharePoint to share files and folders. This may require you or your department to request a sponsored account for the external party.

• For more information on sponsored accounts, please see KB0011112 - What is a Sponsored Account and Why Might I Need One?
• For information on how to request a sponsored account, please see KB0015284 - How Do I Request a Sponsored Account?

If the external party approaches you or your department and that party requires the use of Box, the following steps should be taken:

1. Request a Box account from the external party:

1. You should request that the party provide you with a Box account.  This option provides the greatest level of security for Penn State, the external institution, as well as you. 

2. You should then log into Box using the credentials provided to you by the external institution. 

3. This account should only be used for storage, sharing, and collaboration with that institution.

2. Create an unmanaged (free) account using your @psu.edu email. Free accounts come with a minimal amount of storage.  These accounts should only be used to facilitate collaborations and not for storing data:

1. This option should only be used if the external institution will not provide you with a Box account.

2. If you are using a PSU device on the PSU network, when you search for Box.com, you may be asked if you are part of Penn State in a pop-up that looks similar to the following:

3. Select Not a part of Penn State.

4. From the next screen, select Sign Up:

5. Choose to view the options for Individuals and Teams and click on Sign Up under the option for free accounts:

6. Use your Penn State email address as the user ID when creating the free account.