Cannot link to local files from within Confluence
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs 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
Problem
It's not possible to link to a local file from within Confluence using a file:// URL.
Cause
Modern browsers have security features that prevent linking from remote web pages to local content. URLs that begin with the file:// URI Scheme can only be loaded directly (by typing them into the location bar) or from pages that are loaded using the file:// URI scheme.
Workaround
You can work around the problem by either importing the content into Confluence itself or by setting up a local web server that can host the content using another protocol which won't trigger this error (
http://,https://,ftp://etc.).You can also install a browser extension that will enable local file links
You can try to open the same page in IE ( Internet Explorer ), where local files like file:// used as URL. It seems IE works in such a case.
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