Link local files in task

Hi Jörn! You're right, attaching files from a local storage through the link you mentioned isn't possible due to security standards of modern browsers, which don't allow the opening of local files and directories from remote sites. I understand that the workaround isn't ideal, but it's possible to copy and paste this link to your local file directory to open the required file. In this case, the link to it is simply stored in Wrike as reference for other users. Let me know if you have any other questions about this!

What Jörn is saying is exactly what we are looking for. It would be great if this opportunity would exist.

(or even an own document solution where we upload a file, open and edit it, and just save it (without uploading it again))

Marcel, thank you for commenting here! The second option you described sounds a lot like our existing Document Editor - have you had a chance to give it a try? It allows you to upload a file to a task, open it for editing directly from the task, and then save it upon closing. Some more info can be found in our Document Editor article. Is this what you were looking for? Happy to answer any additional questions!

Actually when we paste the local file link into the the address bar of Chrome (latest version), it works just fine and downloads the local network file. (Maybe there's a difference between a local network file versus a local file hosted on your pc?)

However, the issue is, when we put this link into Wrike's description, it always adds the "Http://" prefix which ruins the link. Every attempt to adjust the hyperlink fails and the prefix persists in Wrike.

Here is our sample link: file://OurServer/public/Forms/Transition%20Forms/Asset%20and%20Order%20Form%20-%202%20SHEET%20TABS.xlsx

Please advise.

Hi everyone! @Isaac, thank you for bringing this to our attention, you're absolutely right and it looks like the link isn't opening because of the incorrectly added prefix. I'm opening up a Support ticket on your behalf so that our engineers could help out with this. @Jörn and @Marcel, could you please let me know whether you're experiencing the same issue with the Http:// prefix? If that's the case I'll be happy to open up Support tickets for you right away too. Looing forward to hearing from you!

Hi Anastasia

Yes, we experienced the same with the prefix. I guess it's not a bug, wrike is just built like that :) Would be fantastic if you could change this.

Thanks!

@Marcel, thanks for following up! I opened a Support ticket for you too, please check your email inbox. :)

Hi everyone! Wanted to let you know that our engineers rolled out an update which allows you to use "file://" links without the "http://" prefix being added. Let me know if you have any questions, and thank you again for bringing this to our attention! :)

Hi,

I have tested the file:// links and they don't seem to work for me. How can I know if I'm running the updated version that has this feature?

What I do is to click on the "chain link" icon in the description editor, then enter my path in the "Link" field, prepending the file:// prefix. This seems to create the link, but when I click on it later, it opens a blank browser tab and nothing happens (tested in Firefox and Chrome).

In addition, it looks like spaces are not supported. I guess special characters should be "url-encoded", such as changing spaces to %20 code. Could this be done automatically?

Finally, is there a way to use this kind of active links in task comments?

Thank you in advance.

Hi,

We experience exactly the same as Luis does. Maybe as he said we're not running the new feature?!

The printscreen shows how it looks when add a link. http:// is added regardless which file I try to link.

Thanks for solving that issue

Hi, @Luis! File links should be working correctly for everyone now. If the link is displayed correctly when you click on it, one of the possible reasons could be a browser limitation. Could you check whether this works in another browser? An article on Stack Overflow goes over some more details about these limitations. In regards to the question about spaces - let me double check with our team and get some more info about that, I'll follow up here as soon as I have an update. Finally, local links, unlike regular ones, aren't currently supported in the comments section, and this is an interesting idea which I'll make a note of for our Product Team. Thanks for taking the time to share all of this!

@Marcel, thanks for following up! It looks like the file:// prefix is entered in a different format - could you please check whether everything works correctly when the path is indicated as shown here?

I am having the same issue.  I thought it was a spacing issue with the link, But when I changed all the spaces to a "." it didn't matter still blank page here is the copy of the link I'm using file://L:\Surveys and Installs\CUSTOMERS\CBC Bowling Green\Photos. and like I said when I change the file names to not have spaces so it looks like this file://L:\Surveys.and.Installs\CUSTOMERS\CBC.Bowling.Green\Photos it still doesn't work.  The only change is the hyperlink is complete it doesn't change too file://L:\Surveys.

Any resolve with this issue?

Hi Nathan, we've looked into it and found out that this is actually a browser limitation. Unfortunately the best option, in this case, is to paste the address link into the task description and copy/paste it into a new tab when necessary. 

Hi,

Even though this is an old thread I'd like to add some comments

A) I think that making links into the local network should be less cumbersome. Imho under windows it should be as simple as copying the file path from the explorer and right-click pasting it as link. I don't think local networks will be completely gone in the next five years and firms that use the local network typically have stuff that needs linking to.

B) Linking does not work if there is any "umlaut" or other special character in the link. So if you are from countries with special characters you might want to make sure that there are no ä's ö's ü's or similar in the names of the directories and the file name.

Cheers

Linking local files is possible in EVERNOTE'S desktop app.

A window pops notifying that the program is accessing outside files and permission is required to continue.

Linking local files from Wrike would be a huge help.

I sure hope the Wrike Team decides to figure this out!

Any progress in this request? We are dependent on linking local folders on our server. 

Cheers

I was glad to see this in my inbox this morning.  It sure would be nice to see this get some action! 

My willingness to upgrade and bring our business and all the clients who lining up behind us is directly impacted by the LACK OF THIS ONE FEATURE. 

I suspect it's a much bigger game changer for many businesses than WRIKE must be aware. 

Come on WRIKE COMMUNITY! If this matters to your business, let's SOUND OFF and do what it takes to see this matter get some action.

@all, sorry for the delay, we have been discussing this with our Product and Security teams. For security purposes, some browsers such as Mozilla and Chrome block links to local files from sites. As browsers are inclined to rank this file type as a possible vulnerability we decided to also support this decision within Wrike. 

If this changes I'll be sure to update you here 👍

@Stephen, could this browser limitation be avoided by implementing the local file browsing feature in the Windows app?

Interesting idea Derek. I've passed it to the Product Team however there are no immediate plans to develop in this direction right now. Of course, the more votes this suggestion gets, the more exposure it will get during the related product meetings. So keep voting, and posting use cases wherever possible!

Ps. sorry for the delayed response!

This feature works only with some pre-requisites and a counter-intuitive usage:

When creating a link like for example "file://domain.com/technical/Documents", this works only:

• When using the desktop client
• And when right-clicking on the link and selecting "Open Link".

Any other combinations, including the very intuitive left-click on the link, does not work. 

While I understand the issue with modern browsers (any workarounds?), it should work in the desktop version of Wrike as expected. Knowing that you need to right-click on a link is not obvious and many of my team told me outright the links don't work.

Hey Jaco Krüger, thank you for this feedback and use case. It's been passed on to the Product team.

I was able to find a somewhat workaround to this issue. It still requires a couple of clicks, but if you are trying to link multiple files, it has been helpful. Rather than having the links live in the description of task/project, I have been uploading MS Word/Excel attachments and creating links within those documents. These links are successfully opening up the linked files when I am using a device that is connected to our server.

This does require you to Open/Edit the file, instead of clicking the file to the Wrike preview. Again, this isn't more efficient than copying/pasting a file path when the occassion is for just one or two files, but if you have a task that requires linking to quite few files, this should save some time.

Hello everyone! Our Product team is now researching potential future enhancements for file management in Wrike. The team is aware of this thread here, but if you could also check out this post and share your views (it's in our brand new forum called "Betas and More"), that would be great 🙂 Thank you again for your feedback 🙌

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Linking to files on our network drives would be an enormous improvement for us. All our (technical) drawings are for example on the networkdrives. +1 for this one.

Thank you for supporting here Nils Troll 🤗

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa is there any additional information on the adjustments of this feature?

We use the desktop app across our company, and as many have stated almost all of our drawings and files are saved on a local network drive as our IT department requires for these types of files, I do not see us moving to SharePoint anytime soon. When using the app, left-click does not work and right-click > Open Link just opens a blank new tab. I understand the limitations of the browser but would really like for the desktop app to open a File Explorer window or folder. Thanks!

JP Vance exactly the same situation here. We could potentially purchase a lot more seats but without this function it's no use: email will be used.

Hi folks! Our team is researching the integration with ShareFile right now, other than that, I don't have updates on this suggestion currently. Thank you so much for your continued feedback here, we pass it on to the team constantly. Please make sure to upvote the original post here as well, as this helps the team understand the popularity here 👍

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Not sure if anyone was/is aware of this, but I am able to link a local shared network drive file path inside the comments of a task, and the link works perfectly (on mac) - but in the task description, I run into the same issue not allowing me to add a linked file path. Anyone else experiencing this?