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Error: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

  • 2 replies
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  • Last reply by Zenos

USSC
USSC
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Hello,

I have 8 PCs where this works (using Win8 - gag), and purchased 20 more systems with Win7 and it does not work on those.

A supervisor emails a link to a local file (the file is local to each user) - i.e. C:\FolderName\Filename.pdf The users would click on this link and it would normally open a PDF. On all the new systems, I get this error message when clicking on the link (Adobe pops up): There was an error opening this document. The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. See attached image for example. The links in the email are on the left side. (if the image uploaded, the "upload" just kept swirling forever)

Why won't it open PDFs when it is linked in an email? If I copy the link and paste it in Windows Explorer, it opens with no issue. This should be a simple click-open, but something is not happy.

Please help. This is fairly urgent, as I cannot roll out the 20 new stations until this critical function is working.  :\

Thank you!

Hello, I have 8 PCs where this works (using Win8 - gag), and purchased 20 more systems with Win7 and it does not work on those. A supervisor emails a link to a local file (the file is local to each user) - i.e. C:\FolderName\Filename.pdf The users would click on this link and it would normally open a PDF. On all the new systems, I get this error message when clicking on the link (Adobe pops up): There was an error opening this document. The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. See attached image for example. The links in the email are on the left side. (if the image uploaded, the "upload" just kept swirling forever) Why won't it open PDFs when it is linked in an email? If I copy the link and paste it in Windows Explorer, it opens with no issue. This should be a simple click-open, but something is not happy. Please help. This is fairly urgent, as I cannot roll out the 20 new stations until this critical function is working. :\ Thank you!

All Replies (2)

Zenos
Zenos
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I have to say I've always had this problem with links to files on the local network. The existence of add-ons to address this suggested to me that it was a known failing of Thunderbird.

Maybe in Windows 8 (which I don't use, yet) they have provided a more tolerant parser for the shell. Left to itself, Thunderbird generates Internet-friendly links with, for instance, file:// declarations and %20 for spaces, and I'm not sure that Windows knew what to do with these.

The Add-ons I have in mind are possibly more to do with access permissions at the recipient's end. I don't think they affect the encoding at the sender's end. But you could try them. Search for link or local in the Add-ons.

Zenos
Zenos
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How do your users generate the link? Windows makes it surprisingly difficult to reference a file. I usually resort to 3rd party tools that allow me to copy a file name or path.

Much to my surprise, I find that if I use Insert|Link and browse to the required file, it generates a fully qualified URI and it works correctly when sent and received in Thunderbird. That's TB31.5.0 on Windows 7 Pro. So the transmitted URI will have this format:

file:///F:/projects/xyz/xyz%20Project%20Spend%20Production%205%20off.xls

It won't work if you just drop in a plain old DOS type filename.

Yes, it's a chore to browse to the required file when you have it in plain sight in front of you in your file manager. I'm using FreeCommander XE which is able to generate properly formed pathnames and copy them to the system clipboard, and these can be pasted as-is into message body, or pasted into the address box in the Insert|Link dialogue.