Overview
There are certain nuances with File Storage integrations that we want to highlight for transparency. We are actively working to abstract these differences behind a unified interface.
Authentication
Box: Only Box admins can access Group information.
OneDrive: Personal OneDrive accounts cannot be linked.
Sharepoint: Non-admins may need admin consent for certain actions, like write permissions. If required, follow this guide to request user consent from your SharePoint admin or ask them to link using their credentials.
Users can authenticate in three ways:
Read-only (Non-Admins) – Access all your Files, Folders, and Drives but cannot access Groups, upload Files, or create Folders. Note: Your admin may still restrict consent. See this guide.
Read-only (Admins) – Access all Files, Folders, and Drives in your Sites but cannot upload Files or create Folders.
Read & Write (Admins) – Access all Files, Folders, and Drives in your Sites and allows uploading Files and creating Folders.
Downloading files
Box: Users must select “Read & Write for Admins” in Merge Link to download files. Files are downloaded in their original MIME type. It is not possible to specify a different MIME type for downloads. See Box’s documentation.
Ongoing Investigation
We are actively exploring ways to allow users to specify the MIME type for downloads. Currently, the following behaviors apply:
Google Drive
Does not allow downloading Google Forms
Has a 10MB on export size - this is approximately a ~200kb Google Spreadsheet file or a ~15MB Google Presentation file.
All exportable files (Google Sheets, Google Presentation, Google Docs, Google Drawings) will be exported as PDF. See Google Drive’s documentation here on export types.
All other files should be downloaded as their original mime type format.
Dropbox: Returns most files as binary data. You may need to convert the binary data back to the File’s mime type via binary conversion.
Sharepoint and OneDrive: Files are downloaded in their original MIME type.
Syncing data
Real-time updates via webhooks — For most integrations, any creations, edits, or deletions to a file or folder will trigger updates in Merge. Some exceptions are:
OneDrive, SharePoint, and Google Drive
Most updates occur in near real-time.
Otherwise, they are captured during periodic syncs. See this spreadsheet for sync times in edge cases.
Providers batch updates every ~1-2 minutes, so webhooks may not be sent immediately.
Box
Root directory (“All Files” folder): Synced every hour (not in real-time).
All other folders: Synced in near real-time if webhook receivers are enabled.
Reason: Box does not allow webhooks in the root “All Files” folder, so real-time updates for root-level changes are not possible.
Dropbox
No real-time updates (webhook receiver support is not yet available).
Changes are captured during periodic syncs.
Deleted files/folders are detected via a deletion detection process, which runs every other day.
Rate limits
Box: has a monthly rate limit that ranges from 50,000 API calls to 200,000 API calls on their most advanced plan.
Sharepoint: permissions API requests consume 5 times the rate limits of a standard data fetch API call.
Supported and unsupported data nuances
Our integrations aim to sync all file storage data, though some limitations exist due to third-party restrictions.
Integration | What Merge syncs | Data that may be missing |
Google Drive | All file & folders the linked user has access to, including My Drive and Shared Drives. | Group users – Requires permissions only accessible to Google Workspace admins.
Files shared with a Group (view-only permissions) – Google Drive API prevents access beyond the user’s own role, so we surface the “READ” permission.
File thumbnails – This is backlogged; reach out if needed. |
Box | All file & folders the linked user has access to
Box does not use Drives, only Files & Folders.
Collections are not synced since they are just groupings of existing files under “All Files.” | • Group users – May be populated for some linked accounts but requires Box admin access. • File thumbnails – This is backlogged; reach out if needed. |
Dropbox | All file & folders the linked user has access to whether on a Personal or Business account.
Dropbox does not use Drives, only Files & Folders. | Group users – Requires admin-level permissions.
File thumbnails – This is backlogged; reach out if needed. |
Sharepoint | All file & folders the linked user has access to within document libraries of each accessible site.
Document libraries are normalized as Drives, named based on the site name + document library name.
Pages are not synced as they are unrelated to file storage. | Group users – Only email-associated groups return member data, not
SharePoint siteGroups. email-associated groups include all site users (Visitors, Members, Owners).
File thumbnails – This is backlogged; reach out if needed. |
OneDrive | All file & folders the linked user has access to in My Files, Home, and Shared tabs.
The OneDrive Drive is the same as the “My Files” tab.
Files in the Home tab (recently accessed, even outside of OneDrive) are synced via OneDrive’s /recent endpoint. | Quick Access files – OneDrive API does not provide an endpoint for this.
If SharePoint files appear in Quick Access but are missing, users should link their SharePoint account separately.
File thumbnails – This is backlogged; reach out if needed. |