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The Box Postman Collection uses an Access Token to authenticate API requests on your behalf. Access tokens expire after 1 hour and must be refreshed.

Using a refresh token

If you configured a Box App in of the Postman quickstart, your Box environment should contain a valid client_id and client_secret. Together with the refresh_token, these can be used to obtain a new access_token.
To refresh the access token, open the Authorization folder in the Box Postman Collection and select Refresh access token.
Click Send.
When successful, your environment is updated with a new access_token and refresh_token, and you can resume making API calls.
Refresh tokens are single-use and expire after 60 days of inactivity. Each time you use a refresh token, a new one is issued and the 60-day window resets.If a refresh token expires, you need to obtain a new token pair by going through the again.

Automatic token refresh

The Box Postman Collection can automatically detect an expired access_token and refresh it before sending your request. This feature is enabled by default. To toggle it, edit your Box Postman environment and set the enable_auto_refresh_access_token variable to true or false.
When enabled, the collection checks whether your access_token has expired before each API call and refreshes it automatically if needed.

Re-authenticating

If your refresh_token has expired, typically because the collection hasn’t been used in over 60 days, you need to re-authenticate by repeating the . Before restarting, delete your existing Box Postman environment. Click the gear icon in the top right, select your environment, and click Delete.
Then follow the from the beginning.
When re-importing the Box Postman Collection, Postman may ask whether to import it as a copy or replace the existing one. Importing as a copy preserves any custom changes you have made to API requests.
Last modified on March 27, 2026