Why won't my document (or PDF) download?

Owned by Miriam Zolin
Last updated: 27 Jul, 2023 by Marcella Marino
1 min read

Does this sound like your situation?

  • Working in the Single Digital Presence (SDP) content management system (CMS)

  • Added a new media item or created a new revision of an existing media item

  • ‘It’s broken!' Download doesn’t work. or image doesn’t display.

Before you fix this problem…

Should your document or PDF be a web page or publication? We are ‘digital-first', wherever possible. Always aim to produce a web version, if you can.

Spaces in the file name?

If you upload a file to the CMS and the file name has spaces in it, it won’t work.

This is the most common reason that downloads don’t work and images don’t display.

Update your media item with a filename that has no spaces

  1. First, remove spaces from your file name. Add dashes to replace spaces.

  2. Find the media item by searching in https://content.vic.gov.au/admin/content/media

  3. Choose to Edit the item

  4. In the Edit screen, choose to Remove the file

  5. When the file is removed, the Remove button is transformed to a Choose File button.

  6. Upload the fixed file.

  7. Scroll down and Save.

Example file names

this-is-a-filename.docx or this-is-a-filename.pdf

this is a file name with spaces.docx or this is a filename with spaces.pdf

Related knowledgebase articles

Filename conventions in SDP's media libraryarchived https://digital-vic.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SHCD/pages/2194768450 Naming media filesarchived