Why Can't a Linked Attachment Be Opened?
Some attachments are not stored in ABM: ABM keeps only a link to where the file is, on a drive letter or a shared folder on your network. When ABM Service cannot open such a file, office staff are told why, in the file's details panel or when they try to open it. Most of the reasons are put right by the system administrator on the Mapped drives screen, under Administration in the ABM Service menu.
Why does a file say ABM has not been told which shared folder its drive stands for?
The file is kept on a drive letter that is not on the list on the Mapped drives screen. Its details panel says This file is kept on drive U:, and ABM has not been told which shared folder U: stands for., with its own letter, and office staff also see Your system administrator can set this up in Administration › Mapped drives. When the link records no letter, the note reads This file is kept on a drive letter ABM has not been told about.
The file was linked from a computer where that letter was mapped to a shared folder. The ABM server has no drive letters of anybody's, so until the letter is on the list, nobody using a browser can open the file.
To put it right as the system administrator:
- Open the file's details panel on the call or customer: as the system administrator you see Map U: in Administration › Mapped drives, with the file's letter, after the note.
- Select it. The Mapped drives screen opens with a line for that letter and the cursor in its Shared folder box.
- Type the shared folder the letter stands for, written
\\server\share. - Select Test to check that the folder can be read, then Save.
- Go back: the call or customer reads its files again, and the note has gone.
Every file kept on that letter, on every customer and call, can then be opened. The Mapped drives screen's Linked files, by where they are kept list shows every letter your files use that nobody has mapped yet, each with Map U:, so you can deal with them all at once.
Why does a file say it is in a folder on the computer it was attached from?
This file is in a folder on the computer it was attached from, so it cannot be opened from here. means the link points into C:, or into a folder on one computer, rather than to a shared folder. The ABM server cannot reach any computer's own disk, so these files cannot be opened in a browser, and the Mapped drives screen does not offer to map C:.
On the Mapped drives screen, these files are counted under Linked files, by where they are kept as on the computer each was attached from — they cannot be opened from anywhere else for links into C:, or as through T:, which is a folder on one computer — they cannot be opened from anywhere else, with the letter in place of T:, for a letter whose line names a folder on one computer. Both are marked Cannot open.
What can be done:
- If the link goes through a drive letter whose line on your list names a folder on one computer, such as
D:\Exports, change that line to the shared folder the files are really in and save. Until you do, the list says which is a folder on one computer after the letter. - If the files in C: have since been copied to a shared folder, with the same folders inside it, add a line for C: yourself with Add a drive and name that shared folder. There is no Map C: shortcut, and the line applies to every C: link on every customer and call, so add it only when that one shared folder holds them all.
- In the ABM Service desktop app, such a file opens on the one PC that has it, for the person signed in there.
- Otherwise, somebody with the file attaches a copy of it again from that computer, with Attach files on the call or customer. An attached copy is stored in ABM itself, so everybody can open it.
This file cannot be opened: the place it was kept is not a valid location. is related: the link is not a full path to anywhere. These are counted under Not a valid location on the Mapped drives screen, and nothing there can fix them; attaching the file again is the only way.
Why does a file say ABM is not allowed to open the folder it is kept in?
ABM is not allowed to open the folder this file is kept in. Your system administrator can give ABM access to that folder. is what office staff are told when they try to open a file kept in a shared folder that the Windows account ABM Service reads as may not read.
To put it right:
- Open the Mapped drives screen, under Administration in the menu.
- Read the end of the explanation under Drive letters: it names the Windows account that needs permission, usually the server computer's own account, the server's name followed by a dollar sign.
- Ask whoever looks after the computer the folder is on to give that account permission to read the share and the folder.
- Select Test on the line for that folder, or on its group under Linked files, by where they are kept, until it says the folder can be read.
If Test says the folder can be read but the file still will not open, a folder further inside may have its own permissions that refuse the same account.
Why does a file say it could not be reached, or is no longer where it was kept?
These two are told to office staff when they try to open the file, and are about the folder or the file, not about the list on the Mapped drives screen:
- The folder this file is kept in could not be reached. The computer it is on may be switched off — try again later. — the computer the folder is on did not answer within about eight seconds, or could not be found on the network at all. Check that it is on and reachable from the ABM server, then select Test on that folder's line on the Mapped drives screen.
- This file is no longer where it was kept. It may have been moved or deleted. — the folder was read, and the file is not in it. Somebody moved, renamed or deleted it. Nothing on the Mapped drives screen can bring it back; find the file and attach it again.
For a PDF or a picture, these are shown on the screen the file opens on, under This file cannot be opened. For any other kind of file in the ABM Service desktop app, which opens it in its own program, the sentence appears in the file's details panel. A browser downloading a file it cannot show, such as a Word document, may only report that the download failed.
There is nothing stored for this file, so it cannot be opened. is different again: the attachment has neither a stored file nor a link, so there is nothing anywhere to open.
Why does a linked file open in the desktop app but not in a browser?
In the ABM Service desktop app, linked files are opened by the person's own PC, as them: a drive letter not on the Mapped drives list goes through that PC's own mapping, a folder on the PC itself is opened there, and the person's own Windows permissions apply. In a browser, every linked file is opened by the ABM server instead: only through shared folders, only through letters on the list, and with the server's own Windows account.
So a file can open in the desktop app and not in a browser, usually because:
- its drive letter is not on the list: map it on the Mapped drives screen;
- it is in a folder on one computer: only that PC can open it;
- the ABM server's account may not read the shared folder: give it permission, then Test in a browser.
It can also be the other way round: a person whose own Windows account may not read the folder cannot open the file in the desktop app, although it opens in a browser.
Documents that your customers open from their account history on the Customer portal are opened by the ABM server too, through the same list, so the same causes and fixes apply when a customer says a linked document will not open.