Forum Discussion
.ASPX Files Now Download Instead of Launching from SharePoint
Hello all,
My organization has recently discovered an issue with .aspx files hosted on SharePoint. We've been using them to launch Storyline and Rise files so they act like web pages (like this). However, we just recently found that after reuploading the file or folder to SharePoint, SharePoint no longer opens the page. If you navigate to the .aspx file, it force-downloads the file. If you use the direct URL, you get a File Not Found error.
We suspect this is a SharePoint issue that has to do with the upload process. My IT department has asked me to check here to see if anyone else has experienced this problem, and if so, what the root cause was (e.g., Microsoft update, policy change, etc.)?
We're looking at SharePoint because:
- It happens to multiple people in multiple offices (not a computer issue).
- It happens with Chrome and Edge. Modifying the URL to add ?web=1 has no effect. Clearing cache and cookies has no effect (not a browser issue).
- I tested the "old" file to confirm it worked, then downloaded the .zip package from SP. When I reuploaded the exact same package back to SP, the file now force-downloads/is not found (so it's not the files or the Storyline version).
- I copied a file that's still working and uploaded the copy. The original opens as a web page, the copy doesn't (again, not the files).
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
Hi @Dorje McKinnon, thanks very much for sharing your hard work! We're continuing to partner with our IT team and are looking for an alternate hosting solution. The redirect will definitely help make the transition easier.
All, if we come to a conclusion that will be helpful to you, I'll come back and let you know where we landed. In the meantime, I can't reiterate strongly enough that the deadline for .aspx files to stop working completely is currently November 2024, so engage with your SharePoint support/IT team as soon as you can.
Glad to know I'm in lots of company with regards to this issue!
I've been searching through many threads to find information on correcting this issue. It occurred around Mid-June for us, and we suspected it was just an SP Admin change that just disabled Custom scripts.
Praying we find a solution to this as we have no other space we can host our content to directly embed into our SharePoint site.Hi @KellyDoyle
Thanks for posting about this. I have a similar issue.
There is a possible work around that may work for some of the folks who end up on this thread.With out of the box SharePoint online functionality you can create an ASPX page which redirects to another page / file / website.
In my case we have a Learning Management System (LMS) which hosts our StoryLine and RISE360 files (so we weren't storing them and trying to open them from a SharePoint library, as most people in this thread are).
In Kelly's case if you can host the Rise and StoryLine files on another site the problem becomes how to I redirect people who use the old ASPX page address to the new location?
e.g. I've got the following Rise360 page which was working but now downloads for all users: /sites/intranet/learning/security101.aspx
Because of this download problem you've moved this course to https://ourinternalserver/learning/security101.html
By adding the "link to a document" out of the box content type to the /sites/intranet/learning/ library, deleting the original security.aspx file and creating a "link to a document" file called security101 with the "document url" of https://ourinternalserver/learning/security101.html your users:
- with the bookmark etc will get redirected to the course in it's new home.
- SharePoint search will still find the security101.aspx file
Full details on this technique are here https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/sharepoint/redirect-sharepoint-modern-page/m-p/4192276/highlight/true#M82294
It took me a while to work this out but it seems to be robust in our environment.
I hope this helps, if you have an option of another location for your Rise and StoryLine files.
In the past, when we ran into this problem in SharePoint Online, it was always fixed by "Enabling Script" in that site (Set-PnPSite -NoScriptSite $false)
But today, we ran into this problem even on sites where that setting was turned on.
The "solution" that worked was a strange behavior:
- When the file was "dragged and dropped" into the library, it did not work.
- When the same file was "uploaded" into the library, it worked.
When I looked deeper into why this was happening:
When the file was dragged and dropped, the above "No Execute" property on the file was set to 1 and it did not work..
When the file was uploaded using the upload button, this property was set to 0 and it worked.
However, since this is a read-only built-in hidden property, it was not possible to update it through a script.
I believe, this started happening after the recent updates to SharePoint Online Admin portal to control the "Enable Script" behavior through UI (SharePoint Admin Center --> Active Sites --> Change View to 'Custom Script allowed Sites' --> Settings --> Custom Scripts) and the auto-switching they implemented to get it back to Blocked within 24 hours.
Unfortunately the above solution to upload instead of Drag-Drop is not reliable and if anyone can shed any help or pointers to work around this, it will be a great help.
Thanks!
@Karthik Selvaraj We have the same issue, and as a workaround to having to upload everything, I ran a sync from each document library where I have published eLearning content, and it syncs the library to OneDrive, which I can access through File Explorer on my computer.
Now I can drag (copy) all of my project files EXCEPT the .aspx files (story.aspx and analytics-frame.aspx). Once those files and folders finish syncing (you can tell by the Status symbol in File Explorer), then I just go to the same folder in the appropriate SharePoint document library and use the upload button for those two .aspx files. So far, that's worked perfectly for us. I have site owner permissions on the site, and the other trainers have design permissions, and there have been no issues.
It's not ideal, but it works.
Hi Tichelle, I tried this exactly as you have instructed but when I click the ellipsis to get the story.aspx > Copy Link> I still receive a download.aspx in the SP link.
Is there anything I'm missing here? Where do you copy the link from for the story.aspx?
Many thanks!!
This started happening for us on July 1. Right now, allowing custom script combined with using the Upload button in Classic view is working, but it's very cumbersome as the Upload won't upload folders, only files. Based on what I'm seeing here, perhaps we're still looking for a permanent solution.
Hi, has anyone found any solution?
In my case past Thursday this issue started to happen after updating the index.aspx
I've been researching to try to find a solution but I haven't had any luck
HI all,
We've confirmed the issue is related to what's described in the links above. Our IT group was able to implement a temporary solution that lasts for 1 day, so right now we need to ask in advance for a script to be run when we want to make an update. If you need to talk to your IT team about this, ask about delaying enforcement of the "Deny Add and Customize Pages" setting.
It sounds like there are SharePoint changes coming in November of '24 that will block this workaround and require a shift to SharePoint Framework (SPFx) or an alternate solution. So now would be a great time to start engaging your SharePoint admin or IT team for planning purposes.
We have multiple SharePoint Online sites and some don't have the custom scripts permission enabled due to the IT and security restrictions, hence the asp files will force download instead of open in the browser on those sites. The workaround for us is to get a site owner to upload the asp file to the SharePoint site that has the custom scripts enabled, then use the "move to" or "copy to" SharePoint feature to transfer the files to the other SharePoint sites. For some reason the permission retains, and the asp files would open in browser on all sites regardless the custom scripts permissions. Not sure if this method will continue work as the future SharePoint updates may block it, but at least it works for us now.
I have run into the same problem today and need to publish a newsletter by lunchtime! What are people doing as an alternative? The only thing I can think of is to share the link to preview the course but then it doesn't sit on our intranet like all the previous newsletters.
I'm so glad for this community - I thought the problem was just me!
Hi, We have the same issue. Our IT answered that the custom script option is disabled in Global settings as SharePoint online is cloud environment and custom scripting is restricted by ISD. If there is some workaround how to share articulate 360 content on SharePoint, please share it with us. Currently, we can't share any new content there...
