Why can't I upload certain edited Office documents back to Confluence?

[Jessica_Burkhart]

I've been trying to test out the Edit in Office functionality for attachments and encountered a bit of a roadblock. Basically, everything works exactly as anticipated for Word documents, with a new version uploaded for each saved edit. However, I'm unable to upload the edits at all for Powerpoints and Excel files.

For each, I initially enable editing, but then receive this error when I try to save the edits to the server:

When I re-open the document after this, it tells me that "someone updated the server copy and it's not possible to upload your changes now." However, the Confluence version remains the same. Has anyone else experienced this?

Technical specs:

Windows 10, Office 2016, Google Chrome v62

[Shannon S · Accepted solution]

Hi Jessica,

Could you also let me know your Confluence version? Does this occur with only .xlsx and .pptx files or also .xls and .ppt? 

Thank you!

Kind regards,

Shannon

[Jessica_Burkhart]

Hi Shannon,

Thanks for responding! I'm currently using version 6.0.2 of Confluence Server. And I've confirmed that the issue persists with .xls and .ppt files.

[Shannon S]

I'm not familiar with this particular version, but I echo what Igor sent below. Is it possible to save without using Upload Center? Confluence uses the copy of the temporary file it is putting on your computer in order to update the changes to the server.

Regards,

Shannon

[Jessica_Burkhart]

I'm currently unaware of a method to bypass the Upload Center in this situation. I was able to get an xlsx file updated by using Save As in the document's current folder & replacing the existing file, but this still went through the Upload Center (just without failure, for some reason):

However, pptx files remain unable to update due to Upload Center failure. 

My organization does not currently have the funds to incorporate another solution like Enterprise Explorer, but before starting up a budgeting initiative I'd like to try and understand why this functionality is only working sporadically in the first place.

Why does it work perfectly fine for Word documents, but not at all for Powerpoint documents, even though they go through the same uploading process? Is it something to do with our server, a Microsoft error, or an Atlassian bug? Or perhaps its a use case to be submitted with CONFSERVER-38024.

Thank you for your help!

[Shannon S]

Thank you, Jessica. 

I spoke with members of our team and they confirmed you should continue to watch CONFSERVER-38024. There are plans for changes in the first quarter of 2018 so please keep an eye on the case for those updates.

You can see from the Compatibility Matrix that Chrome is currently only supported via the Attachments Page which might explain the issues you're having. In addition, the team let me know that the following article is also related to the issues you're having in Office 2016 due to the SharePoint 2013 Foundation Support changing the way URLs are handled.

• Edit in Office documents fail to open in Word, Excel and URL Shows ms-word|ofe|u|http:// link 

Our advice now is wait for the changes this coming year that I mentioned earlier and keep an eye on the feature request that I linked you to.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Shannon

[Jessica_Burkhart]

Thanks for the advice and resources! 

The issue appears to persist on Attachment Pages, but I'll definitely look into SharePoint Foundation Support / keep an eye on that issue. 

Thank you again for your help!

[Shannon S]

You're welcome, Jessica! Hope to see this resolved for everyone in the coming year.

Regards,
Shannon

[d_jeffbethune]

The workaround for this is described in the following bug report:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-57721

[d_jeffbethune]

Hi Jessica, 

Have you managed to resolve this? I am experiencing the same error.

Thanks
Jeff