Developer sandboxes provide Box administrators with a sanctioned and traceable way to manage sandbox environments where developers can build and test applications on Box.
We’re excited to announce a major update to Box Sandboxes — making them easier to create, manage, and use.
Whether you’re building with Box APIs, testing new integrations, or collaborating with external partners, these updates are designed to simplify your workflow and give you a more secure, controlled development environment.
The full documentation on how to manage sandboxes can be found here.
What’s new?
Here’s a quick look at the improvements we’ve rolled out:
- Simplified sandbox creation — no more creating unique email addresses for sandbox creation
- Smarter admin/co-admin management — easily switch roles
- External user access — invite contractors, partners, or ISVs into your sandbox.
- Sync with production — sandboxes now inherit your enterprise’s plan and add-ons, with the ability to sync changes over time for more realistic testing.
- Fully integrated into the Admin Console — manage everything in one place.
Easier Sandbox creation
Creating a sandbox just got a whole lot easier.
Previously, admins had to manually provide a unique email address for every sandbox user — a major blocker for many teams. Now, Box generates a unique sandbox login for you automatically, and all key notifications (including account creation and password reset) are sent to the user’s real email address.
This change eliminates the need for workarounds and improves security by keeping development environments tied to the enterprise.
Smarter Admin and Co-Admin controls
We’ve made sandbox administration more flexible:
- Assign multiple co-admins to a sandbox.
- Easily switch roles — only one primary admin is allowed per sandbox, but you can change the primary at any time.
Admins can now manage sandboxes confidently without manual workarounds or confusing role limitations.
Invite external users
You can now invite users outside your enterprise domain to your sandbox environment.
That means contractors, Box Consulting, and external developers can work directly within a sandbox — no more asking for custom Box accounts or navigating trial instances. Just add them as you would internal users.
This is a huge win for partner collaboration and custom integration projects.
Sync with production for realistic testing
To make sandboxes even more valuable for development and testing, we’re rolling out a new feature that mirrors your plan and add-ons — into each sandbox enterprise.
When you create a sandbox, it will now automatically inherit the same plan and add-ons as your parent enterprise. This ensures a consistent and realistic environment for building and testing apps.
And it doesn’t stop there — if the parent enterprise changes (like upgrades or add-on updates), you can choose to update the sandbox on demand, keeping things aligned over time.
This not only improves the reliability of testing but also helps catch issues earlier in the development cycle, reducing surprises after deployment. By making sandboxes more realistic and easier to maintain, we’re encouraging teams to rely on them for a safer, more representative development workflow.
Developer Console activation
Developers can then activate the Developer Console inside their sandbox environments.
To start building:
- Navigate to your sandbox account (details in the activation email).
- Head to the Developer Console URL directly.
- Create your app and start testing.
This update helps developers move away from standalone free accounts and work securely inside their enterprise-linked environments.
Why this matters
Sandboxes are a key part of secure, enterprise-grade app development — and we’ve made them easier to use at every step.
Admins now have better controls. Developers can build in enterprise-linked environments. And teams can collaborate with external partners more easily.
With the introduction of plan and add-o nsyncing, developers now work in environments that more closely mirror the real-world conditions of their live enterprise.
This not only improves the reliability of testing but also helps catch issues earlier in the development cycle, reducing surprises after deployment. By making sandboxes more realistic and easier to maintain, we’re encouraging teams to rely on them over free developer accounts for a safer, more representative development workflow.
Get started today
Admins can create and manage sandboxes directly from the Admin Console under Platform → Sandboxes.
These new features are rolling out gradually, so if you don’t see them yet — hang tight, they’re on the way.
We’d love to hear your feedback. Let us know what you think — and happy building!
