Changes / Box / [Medium] Issues with Box Relay
Box: Major incident: [Medium] Issues with Box Relay
Summary
Box Relay experienced a major-impact degradation starting 2026-07-15 04:14 UTC, affecting workflow functionality. The incident lasted 2 h 29 min and was resolved at 2026-07-15 06:43 UTC after a fix was implemented; Box confirmed full functionality was restored.
Machine-written from the diff below (Sol; type: incident degradation). Check the diff before relying on it.
What changed
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After: [Medium] Issues with Box Relay
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After: major
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After: postmortem
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After: 2026-07-15 04:14 UTC
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After: 2026-07-15 06:43 UTC
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After: Box Relay
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After: We are investigating an ongoing issue affecting Box Relay. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.
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After: Our team has identified the underlying cause of this issue and is working to take remediating steps. We will provide additional updates as they become available.
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After: We are continuing to work on a fix for this issue.
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After: A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.
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After: After further monitoring, this incident is now considered resolved. Box Relay has been restored to full functionality. If you continue to experience any issues, please contact Box Support at https://support.box.com.
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After: We recently addressed issues affecting Box Relay. We would like to take the opportunity to further explain these issues and the steps we have taken to keep them from happening in the future.
Between 1:10 AM and 11:33 PM PT on July 14, 2026, some users may have experienced difficulties while working in Box. During this time, some users may have experienced degradation of Box Relay workflows that include a task outcome. The issue occurred as a result of a recent code change intended to improve how task assignments are handled in workflows. We were able to resolve the issue by reverting that change and restoring the previous behavior. In addition, we are improving our automated testing, monitoring, and deployment safeguards to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.
**Analysis**
A Box Relay workflow can include a task outcome, which assigns a task to one or more people. As part of that outcome, the workflow also attempts to give each assignee access to the relevant file. A recent change caused the entire task outcome to fail whenever that access-granting operation was rejected. Such a rejection is an expected condition in some configurations \(_e.g._, when the person who owns the workflow does not have sufficient permission to share the file, or when sharing restrictions are in place\) and it can occur even when the assignee already has access to the file. Previously these rejections were tolerated and the task was still created. After the change, they caused the task outcome to fail, so affected workflows stopped completing.
**Corrective Actions**
Box has initiated the following corrective actions:
* Adding automated test coverage for this scenario to prevent similar regressions.
* Adding monitoring and alerting for workflow-processing failures, so this class of issue is detected proactively rather than through customer reports.
* Refining the task-assignment logic to avoid unnecessary access-granting operations when an assignee already has access to the file.
We are continuously working to improve Box and want to make sure we are delivering the best product and user experience we can. We hope we have provided some clarity here and we would be happy to answer any questions you may still have regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
The Box Team
First version of this incident archived by Rewindex. View the live incident.
History of this incident
| When (UTC) | Change | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Major incident: [Medium] Issues with Box Relay (this change) Box Relay experienced a major-impact degradation starting 2026-07-15 04:14 UTC, affecting workflow functionality. The incident lasted 2 h 29 min and was resolved at 2026-07-15 06:43 UTC after a fix was implemented; Box confirmed full functionality was restored. | Major incident |