Where have my attachments gone?

[Deleted user]

We're running Confluence 5.1.5 and I have been helping create a new space and move pages from an older space into it. I do not spend a lot of time administering Confluence, however, and was surprised when the pages moved, but apparently the attached files didn't! I found some old information from v 3.x about a similar problem, but figure this must be new...

How do I find the attachments and get them re-referenced?

Note: the symptom is that the link exists, but clicking it gets the equivalent of a 404.

Thanks...

[Scott Dudley [Inactive]]

Just a small correction to Peter's note: the linked KB article specifically refers to problems with the Attachment Checkout Plugin by Locus-Global. Those problems are particular to that plugin only and there are no known issues when moving pages with Arsenale Lockpoint.

As for Stephen's original question, you mentioned that links to the files (presumably from individual page content) returns 404s. Were the files attached to the page in which the link was contained, or were they on different pages? Does going to Tools->Attachments still show you the files that you expected to be attached to the page in question? Or can you find the files anywhere in the space using Space Tools->Content Tools->Attachments (in either the source or destination space)?

[Scott Dudley [Inactive]]

Do you see any errors in the logs? The following article might help you find the attachments. Your initial note suggests that you may have already found this page--and it's true that the page does refer to a specific attachment loss issue in 3.0, but the recovery procedure ("Resolving missing attachments with disk storage") can be used even for files that were not lost due to that specific 3.0 bug.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Resolve+Missing+Attachments+in+Confluence

I have used this previously on a Confluence 3.5 instance, but I'm not sure if it the latest 3.1 JSP is necessarily compatible with 5.x...but it seems worth trying.

Otherwise, Atlassian Support is probably your next best bet.

[Deleted user]

Thanks, Scott. We'll see what's next, but my guess is contacting support.

[Deleted user]

Scott, thanks for the directions on where to look.

Tools | Attachments shows the list of attachments, but clicking on any of them leads to a page that says:

Attachment File Not Found

The attachment you were trying to download could not be found in the attachment file store. Either the file has been removed manually or there was an error in removing the record of the attachment from Confluence.

If this attachment is no longer required you can remove it from Confluence on the attachments page. Otherwise, you will need to attach a new copy.

The same thing occurs when I search using Space Tools (which also shows the attachments).

[PeterKoczan]

Hi,

Can you reproduced this issue any time you move a page on your instance? If it is reproducable we could do a few troubleshooting steps (locate the attachment before moving the page on the disk, then see if the attachment itself persists as a file or is it lost afterwards too, etc)

[Dong Wang]

Hi Peter, the same problem comes to me and I want to know how to locate the attachment? - There are so many directories named by strange numbers below the 'attachments' directory.

[PeterKoczan]

Hi,

Do you by any chance have any third-party plugin installed that deals with attachments (like Attachment Checkout plugin/Lockpoint)? As of this article this can be one of the causes. Normally if you move a page attachments, comments and all data should move along (see: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Moving+a+Page).

Kind regards,

Peter

[Deleted user]

Peter, no, we do not have 3rd-party attachment managers. In fact, we have no 3rd-party add-ons at all.