Troubleshoot a bot that won't send a file

A Send Document step sends one file to whoever reaches it, and we check that the file can actually be delivered before your bot goes live.

How it works

Three things decide whether your bot may send a file, and they're set in two places.

• The file itself is uploaded on a Catalog item, under Resources → Documents. There's no separate files area.
• The document row on that item carries May send to customer, an Audience, and the holder rules underneath it.
• The step names one file. It doesn't carry rules of its own — it follows the item's.

What to check first

Your bot won't publish, and the check names a step. Open that step and work down this list. The first two are almost always the answer.

1. May send to customer isn't ticked. Open the Catalog item's Resources, find the document, and tick it. It starts off.
2. No document has been chosen. The step saves without one, but it won't publish. Select the step and choose a Document.
3. The file lives outside Qcom. Upload a copy under Resources → Documents and choose that instead.

When your bot won't send it

Three different things are happening here, and only one of them is a problem.

You haven't finished setting it up. No document chosen, or May send to customer left off. Both are one click on a screen you own, and nothing is broken.

The file isn't for everyone, and that's working as intended. If the item's document row sets an Audience above Public, or a holder rule, we won't let your bot send it — your bot can't tell who it's talking to, so it can't apply a rule that depends on knowing. There's nothing to fix. Send a file that's open to everyone, and let customers open the restricted one from the item, where we can check who's asking.

Something it was pointing at has gone. The file was deleted, or the Catalog item was archived, after your bot went live. Your bot keeps running and hands every customer who reaches that step to a person. You'll find it under Workspace readiness on your operations queue, reported as critical. Choose a file that's still there, or remove the step.

We won't delete a file that a bot or an item still uses, and we'll name what's holding it — so the third case usually means the file went before that check existed, or the item was archived rather than deleted.

What this isn't

It isn't a delivery problem. If the step publishes and the file is still there, the send itself is a messaging problem — check the channel your bot is bound to.

It isn't about who the customer is. Your bot never decides that. It only sends files nobody has restricted.

Once the step publishes, keep files your bot can send covers naming and replacing the files themselves.

Related

• Send a document, a location or a card
• Keep files your bot can send
• Share a digital resource