Has anyone successfully created native Excel external workbook links to Excel files stored as Conflu

Flurina Flüeler

Our company recently migrated from Confluence Server/Data Center to Confluence Cloud (Atlassian Cloud).

Previously, we were able to create native Excel external workbook links directly to Excel files stored as Confluence attachments using URLs like: <a href="https://confluence.company.com/download/attachments/12345/Source.xlsx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://confluence.company.com/download/attachments/12345/Source.xlsx</a>

The links worked correctly and Excel could update them.

After the migration, the attachment URLs now look like:<a href="https://company.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/12345/Source.xlsx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://company.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/12345/Source.xlsx</a>

I can paste this URL into a browser and the Excel file downloads immediately (I'm already logged into Confluence), so the URL itself is valid and accessible.

However, when I create an external workbook reference in Excel such as:='<a href="https://company.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/12345/%5BSource.xlsx%5DSheet1'!A1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://company.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/12345/[Source.xlsx]Sheet1'!A1</a>

Excel recognizes it as an external link and attempts to update it, but the update fails and the formula returns #REF!.

Tomislav Tobijas

Uh, this is quite a specific issue @Flurina Flüeler 😅

Am I guessing you did have a migration partner and a dedicated migration support engineer for the migration from on-prem to cloud? I do believe that whoever managed the migration can reach out to Atlassian Support and have specialized folks take a look at it.

But, to get back to your question, there are some fundamental differences in how Cloud handles attachment auth and storage compared to server/DC.

In Confluence Cloud, attachments are stored in a specialized Media Platform rather than a simple local file system. While you can access the URL in a browser because of your active session, Excel's background update process cannot handle the Atlassian account authentication or the session tokens required to stream the file data directly...

I'd check with your admin for these things:

• Run link fixing
• Run Jira Macro Repair

But that won't really solve this problem (I suppose). What seems to work the best is, instead of actually attaching these files to pages, use platforms like SharePoint or OneDrive and just embed those files in Confluence content. This proved to be much more 'stable' and scalable, but it requires actually having licenses and storage in those third-party tools. (see example of embedding Word doc here)

Cheers,
Tobi