Upload File Version

To upload a new version of a file to Box via direct upload, make an API call to the API with the content of the file, the desired file name, and the folder ID.

cURL

curl -i -X POST "https://upload.box.com/api/2.0/files/12345/content" \
     -H "authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
     -H "content-type: multipart/form-data" \
     -F attributes='{"name":"Contract.pdf", "parent":{"id":"11446498"}}' \
     -F file=@<FILE_NAME>

await client.uploads.uploadFileVersion(file.id, {
  attributes: {
    name: file.name!,
  } satisfies UploadFileVersionRequestBodyAttributesField,
  file: generateByteStream(20),
} satisfies UploadFileVersionRequestBody);

client.uploads.upload_file_version(
    uploaded_file.id,
    UploadFileVersionAttributes(name=new_file_version_name),
    new_file_content_stream,
)

await client.Uploads.UploadFileVersionAsync(fileId: uploadedFile.Id, requestBody: new UploadFileVersionRequestBody(attributes: new UploadFileVersionRequestBodyAttributesField(name: newFileVersionName), file: newFileContentStream));

client.getUploads().uploadFileVersion(uploadedFile.getId(), new UploadFileVersionRequestBody(new UploadFileVersionRequestBodyAttributesField(newFileVersionName), newFileContentStream))

BoxFile file = new BoxFile(api, "id");
FileInputStream stream = new FileInputStream("My File.txt");
file.uploadNewVersion(stream);

file_id = '11111'
file_path = '/path/to/file.pdf'

updated_file = client.file(file_id).update_contents(file_path)
print(f'File "{updated_file.name}" has been updated')

using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open))
{
    BoxFile file = await client.FilesManager
        .UploadNewVersionAsync("File v2.pdf", "11111", fileStream);
}

var fs = require('fs');
var stream = fs.createReadStream('/path/to/file.pdf');
client.files.uploadNewFileVersion('11111', stream)
	.then(file => {
        /* file -> {
            total_count: 1,
            entries: 
            [ { type: 'file',
                id: '11111',
                file_version: 
                    { type: 'file_version',
                    id: '22222',
                    sha1: '0beec7b5ea3f0fdbc95d0dd47f3c5bc275da8a33' },
                sequence_id: '0',
                etag: '0',
                sha1: '0beec7b5ea3f0fdbc95d0dd47f3c5bc275da8a33',
                name: 'My File.pdf',
                description: '',
                size: 68431,
                path_collection: 
                    { total_count: 1,
                    entries: 
                    [ { type: 'folder',
                        id: '0',
                        sequence_id: null,
                        etag: null,
                        name: 'All Files' } ] },
                created_at: '2017-05-16T15:18:02-07:00',
                modified_at: '2017-05-16T15:18:02-07:00',
                trashed_at: null,
                purged_at: null,
                content_created_at: '2017-05-16T15:18:02-07:00',
                content_modified_at: '2017-05-16T15:18:02-07:00',
                created_by: 
                    { type: 'user',
                    id: '33333',
                    name: 'Test User',
                    login: '[e-mail]' },
                modified_by: 
                    { type: 'user',
                    id: '33333',
                    name: 'Test User',
                    login: '[e-mail]' },
                owned_by: 
                    { type: 'user',
                    id: '33333',
                    name: 'Test User',
                    login: '[e-mail]' },
                shared_link: null,
                parent: 
                    { type: 'folder',
                    id: '0',
                    sequence_id: null,
                    etag: null,
                    name: 'All Files' }
                item_status: 'active' } ] }
        */
    })

Preflight check

To prevent wasting time and bandwidth uploading a file that is going to be rejected it is recommended to perform a before uploading the file.

Request Format

The request body of this API uses a content type of multipart/form-data. This is used to transmit two parts, namely the file attributes and the file’s actual content.

The first part is called attributes and contains a JSON object with information about the file, including the name of the file and the id of the parent folder.

The following is an example a test.txt being uploaded to the root folder of the user.

POST /api/2.0/files/123/content HTTP/1.1
Host: upload.box.com
Authorization: Bearer [ACCESS_TOKEN]
content-length: 343
content-type: multipart/form-data; boundary=------------------------9fd09388d840fef1

--------------------------9fd09388d840fef1
content-disposition: form-data; name="attributes"

{"name":"test.txt", "parent":{"id":"0"}}
--------------------------9fd09388d840fef1
content-disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="test.txt"
content-type: text/plain

Test file text.

--------------------------9fd09388d840fef1--

The attributes JSON part of the multi-part body must come before the file part of the multipart form data. When out of order, the API will return a HTTP 400 status code with an error code of metadata_after_file_contents.

Options

To learn more about all the parameters available when uploading files, head over to the . These parameters include a content-md5 that can be set to ensure a file is not corrupted in transit, and the ability to explicitly specify the file creation time at a different time than the upload time.

For file versions an additional can be passed along to prevent overwriting a file that has already been updated since the application last inspected the content.

Restrictions

Direct uploads are limited to a maximum file size of 50MB. For larger files, please use the .

Upload limits are dictated by the type of account of the authenticated user. More information can be found .