Attachment "could not be found", not in Data>Downloads>Media Att ZIP

User Support Data Management
1

Hi there

It appears that since I did a re-deploy of a form last week (as I had to delete one group of questions from the form), the attachments (.doc, .pdf, .docx,) for one question are attaching but are showing up as “could not be found” in the Submission record. Images are still coming through at 2 other questions on the form. The “could not be found” issue has happened for 2 real submissions and 3 test submissions (with a .docx and .pdf).

Another form, with the same question (though I have not re-deployed it recently), is not experiencing the same issue (I loaded the same .docx file to it, and I was able to access it in the Submission record). I have done a comparison between the 2 XLS files and cannot see a difference that would be causing the problem.

I have downloaded Data>Downloads>Media Attachments (ZIP) but the attachments are not in there.

Would very much appreciate some guidance.

Kind regards, Jenny

2

Welcome to the community, @negf! Would you mind checking your media attachments under the gallery (Project>DATA>Gallery) of your project?

3

Thank you for your response. I have just checked and they are not there. jpeg, jpg, png are there but not docx or pdf.

4

Hi there, just wondering if you may have an update on this issue? Many thanks, Jenny

5

Hi @negf ,

When you re-deploy a form any changes to media files (like .docx or .pdf attachments) can sometimes cause broken links in existing submissions if the media was removed or not re-uploaded properly during the redeployment. That’s why your new submissions show “could not be found,” even though images from other questions still work.

Here’s what you can try:

  • Re-upload the mi* ssing documents inside your form builder (or re-attach them in the XLSForm media::file column if you’re using XLS).

  • Save and deploy the form again.

  • Make a new test submission to check if the files now attach correctly.

Old submissions made after the problem started might still have broken links, but new submissions should work if the media is properly linked again.

Hope this helps!

6

Hi Brian, thanks for your message.
The original questions I deleted were not connected with the question that is causing the problems and were not file/media questions (just text response questions).
I added a new question that exactly matched the question causing the issue (so both questions were sitting in the survey) and re-deployed. The “could not be found” issue affected both the original question and the new question.
Is there something I did wrong there?
Kind regards
Jenny