I wondered if it was possible to link to a file system file from Confluence

[Allan Ford]

I wondered if it was possible to link to a file system file from Confluence.

I tried

file:\\hmb-fps-001\common\Application Services\Requirements Management\Standards, Procedures and Guidelines\Development\Your guide to SQL Standards and Features.docx

but this doesn't seem to work.

[Allan Ford]

Seems this question has been struggled with before ..

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Confluence-How-to-place-a-link-to-a-file-on-a-server-share-in-a/qaq-p/258790

[Mikael_Sandberg]

Hi @Allan Ford

Welcome to the Atlassian Community.

It is possible, but your browser has to support it, only IE/Edge support it natively, and for Chrome and Firefox you need an add on. Your link in Confluence has to look like this, file://///unc/path/file.name

[Allan Ford]

Hi Mikael, 

Thanks for your reply !

I've tried the five / approach without any luck also. and also within [] square brackets .. 

e.g.

[file://///hmb-fps-001/common/Application Services/Requirements Management/Standards, Procedures and Guidelines/Development/Your guide to SQL Standards and Features.docx]

Hmmm ..  Maybe wanting to do this is not desirable anyway ?

[Mikael_Sandberg]

What browser are you using? The link only works if you are using Microsoft Edge, Chrome and Firefox does not allow it by default since it is considered a security risk. There are add-ons for both Chrome and Firefox to bypass this. I found these two add-ons when one of my users asked about it:

Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/locallinks/jllpkdkcdjndhggodimiphkghogcpida   This plug-in only works in non-incognito mode.  

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/?src=search, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/locallink/

[Allan Ford]

Thank Mikael,

Have tried, with no luck, in both Edge and Chrome ..

This link gives me 404 error:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/locallinks/jllpkdkcdjndhggodimiphkghogcpida 

cheers, Allan

[Mikael_Sandberg]

It's been awhile since I got the request internally from my users to be able to link to file system, so maybe Microsoft removed that feature in Edge. 

Here is another addon for Chrome to allow local file links: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/enable-local-file-links/nikfmfgobenbhmocjaaboihbeocackld?hl=en