To move a folder, update the ID of its parent folder.
Operation details
This call will return synchronously. This holds true even
for folder moves when the folder contains a large number
of items in all of its descendants. For very large
folders, this means the call could take
minutes or hours to complete and
some parts of the tree are locked during moves.
When moving a folder, part of the file tree will
be locked, mainly the source folder and all of its descendants,
as well as the destination folder.
For the duration of the move you cannot perform
other move, copy, delete, or restore operation
on any of the locked folders.
Moving a subfolder to a private folder
When moving a collaborated subfolder into a private folder, the owned_by.id value has to match the authenticated user making the API request.
If owned_by.id does not match the requestor’s user ID, you will get the error.
The Box API doesn’t support changing ownership of a collaborated folder to another user as part of a move operation.
Last modified on August 6, 2026
