Forum Discussion

RandallSauchuck's avatar
RandallSauchuck
Community Member
8 years ago

External files not being included when publishing

Has anyone else encountered this? I have a PDF which is accessed via a hyperlink. The file path is correct and the .story file and the .pdf file are on the same hard drive.  When I publish the f...
storyline 360
ScottHewitt's avatar
ScottHewitt
Community Member
5 years ago

Hi, 

I have the solution. 

I know this is an old thread, but I don't know if people are still having issues with PDF files or files not appearing in published files. 

We had the same issue but after some research and testing worked out the issue and a solution. 

We also want to link to PDF files within the content and not via the tab. We use a trigger. 

We learnt that linked via a file on a network drive is very unreliable. 

We started putting all the files (storyline, PDF etc) on the local drive and publishing. We noticed that the PDF would be missing from the external_files folder. 

We tried loads of things - stuff I'm sure you've all tried. 

Eventually we realised the problem was the filename length of the PDF or linked file. If we reduced it massively it always worked. I've got one that is about 25 characters at the moment and this works. Anything that is really long doesn't get picked up. 

Reduce the filename of your linked file and you should be fine. 

Hope this helps

Scott

 

  • NataneChomicki's avatar
    NataneChomicki
    Community Member
    5 years ago

    I know this is an old thread but just wanted to pop in to say that Scott's solution is what worked for me! I shortened the name of the PDF file that was missing from the published output and re-added it to the Resources tab. Now when I publish the project, the file is in the "external_files" folder as expected.