Upload Files
When you upload a file, such as an image or document, it will be attached to the current page.
You can then choose to display the file on the page as a link, an image or embed it in the page (using a macro).
To upload a file you'll need the 'Add Attachments' space permission.
Upload a file
There are many ways to attach a file to a page.
In the editor you can:
- Drag the file directly onto the page.
- Go to Insert > Files and images and upload a file.
When viewing a page you can:
- Drag the file directly onto the page.
- Go to
> Attachments and upload a file.
You can attach multiple files at a time.
Copy and pasting a file from another application doesn't work reliably in many browsers. We recommend you use one of the methods above to make sure the file is uploaded successfully.
Accepted file types and size
Confluence allows you to attach most file types, but you cannot attach a folder of files (including folders created by applications like Keynote - you'll need to export your presentation to zip or other format).
Although just about any file type can be attached to a page, not all file types can be displayed on or embedded in a page. See Display Files and Images to find out more.
The maximum file size you can upload to Confluence is set by your system administrator. By default it's 100mb, but your administrator may have increased or reduced this limit.
File versions
If you upload a file with the same name as an existing attachment on the same page, Confluence will overwrite the existing attachment. Version history is kept for all attachments. See Manage Files to find out more.
Any changes you make to the source file will not affect the copy that was uploaded to Confluence. To update the Confluence copy, you need to upload the new version of the file.
What happens after a file is uploaded?
Text extraction and indexing
When a file is uploaded, its text is extracted and indexed. This allows people to search for the content of a file, not just the filename.
See Configuring Attachment Size for more information on how files are indexed.
Thumbnail and preview generation
When you insert an uploaded file into a page (for example a Word document, or Excel spreadsheet), Confluence will generate thumbnail images of the file contents, so it can be viewed inline in the page, or in the preview.
Because this process can be very memory intensive, a 30 second time limit applies when performing document conversion for complex image or presentation files (such as PPT, PPTX, EMF, WMF). Your administrator can increase or decrease this timeout using the confluence.document.conversion.imaging.convert.timeout or confluence.document.conversion.slides.convert.timeout system properties.
Thumbnails are not generated for TIFF or PSD (Photoshop) files by default. Your administrator can override this behaviour using the confluence.document.conversion.imaging.enabled.tif or confluence.document.conversion.imaging.enabled.psd system properties.
In Confluence Server, document conversion is handled by Confluence. In Confluence Data Center this process is externalised, to minimise the impact on individual Confluence nodes. See Document conversion for Confluence Data Center to find out about how this affects thumbnail and preview generation.
Notes
We recommend you don't use special characters in page or attachment names, as the page or attachment may not be found by Confluence search, and may cause some Confluence functions to behave unexpectedly.