Alternate to FTP Files Onto a Confluence Page
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Note that this knowledge base article was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center knowledge base articles for non-Data Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Symptoms
- Uploading a file via browser
- Confluence page causes a time out.
Diagnosis
While Confluence does not officially support FTP, WebDAV can be used to achieve the desired result. When uploading a file that is very large, a time out occurs. This is because most browsers have a internally built time out when communicating with a server. Generally, when uploading large files, the upload speed is not as fast as the download on the client end computer using the Confluence server. Because of this, uploading content can take some time unless the server is within the same network as the clients. When uploading files via a browser, a HTTP connection is initiated on port 80 which is UDP. When a connection is setup with WebDAV, a TCP connection is made keeping data intact due to packet checks. Otherwise, there is possible corruption from getting the packets without checking. Another reason this happens is due to the configuration of the upload limit in Confluence. This limit can be adjusted based on your preferences.
Cause
There are 2 main causes for this.
Scenario 1: File is large and upload bandwidth to the server is too slow causing a time out on the web browsers process with the application.
Scenario 2: The upload limit for the file is small on Confluence.
Workaround
Scenario 1: use WebDAV to load the files in place.
Configuring a WebDAV client for Confluence
Scenario 2: Increase Confluence max upload size limit.