Fix upload errors

A submission that shows as "Failed" did not reach your upload destination. Usually the files are still held and a retry delivers them, so a failed submission is typically a few minutes of work rather than a lost upload. The exception is a submission where the uploader never finished sending anything. That one needs to be submitted again. This page covers how to find a failure, read its cause, fix it, and retry. Everything on this page is available on all plans.

Find the submissions that failed

Every upload form keeps its own record on the Submissions tab, and the "Status" column there shows how far each submission got on its way to your upload destination.

1. On the Upload Forms page, click View Submissions on the form's row.
2. Look down the "Status" column. A failed submission shows "Failed" in red.
3. On a form with a long history, click Sort and sort by Status to group the failures together.

What each status means

The "Status" column describes how far a submission got on its way to your upload destination. Expand a row for details.

• "Uploading" means the uploader's browser is still sending files. Files that haven't arrived yet read "not yet uploaded." This is normal, not an error.
• "Transferring" means every file was received and EZ File Drop is delivering them to your upload destination. If a transfer stalls for 15 minutes, the row shows "Transfer appears stuck." EZ File Drop retries automatically up to five times, so you don't need to do anything. To try right away, for example after reconnecting the destination account, click Retry Transfer.
• "Completed" means every file was delivered to your upload destination.
• "Incomplete" means some files were delivered, but at least one never finished uploading. This usually happens because the uploader closed their browser or lost their connection. Ask them to submit again to send the missing files. The form owner and failure recipients also get a Partial Upload email listing what's missing.
• "Failed" means either no files arrived or the destination refused the delivery. If nothing arrived, ask the uploader to submit again. If the destination refused the files, or a stuck transfer used up its automatic attempts, fix the cause and click Retry. The files are held for up to 30 days, so the uploader doesn't need to resubmit.

Read what went wrong

Click the chevron at the left of a failed submission to expand it.

When the destination refused the files, a red banner sits at the top of the expanded row. It is headed "File couldn't be delivered," or names the number of files if more than one failed. Beneath the heading it reads "The destination rejected the upload. Try again, or fix the issue and retry." Click Technical details in the banner to see the exact reason recorded for the transfer. That reason tells you which fix below applies, so read it before retrying.

When the uploader never finished sending any files, the expanded row reads "This upload was never completed." and has no Technical details toggle. There is nothing to retry, so ask them to submit again.

Match the reason to the fix

These are the reasons the failure banner gives, and what each one means.

• "Missing permission to upload to this destination" and "No permission to upload to this destination" mean the connection no longer has the access it needs. Reconnect the cloud account.
• "Destination storage limit reached" means the cloud account you are delivering to has no space left. Free some up, or point the form at a different account.
• "A file with this name already exists in the destination" means the provider refused a duplicate name. Renaming incoming files with a form field value keeps names unique. See Rename incoming files.
• "File exceeds the destination's size limit" means the file is larger than your cloud provider accepts for a single file. That ceiling belongs to the provider, not to EZ File Drop.
• "Upload blocked by destination policy" means a rule on the destination account refused the file. On a work account, this usually means an administrator setting.
• A message about a rate limit means the provider was handling too many requests at once. Retry it, and it usually goes through.
• "Transfer failed," "Upload timed out," "Network error during upload," and "File was not delivered to the destination" are general failures with no single cause. Retry first, and if it fails the same way twice, send it to support.

Reconnect a cloud account

Most failures that will not clear on their own come back to the connection. A cloud account can stop working because its access was revoked at the provider, because a password change ended it, or because the account was removed.

1. In the left sidebar, click Cloud Connections.
2. Find the connection that needs attention. In place of the usual green check, it offers Reconnect.
3. Click Reconnect and sign in to the provider again.

Reconnecting automatically retries the submissions that failed on that account. You do not have to go back and retry them one at a time.

FTP and SFTP connections work differently, because they hold the server details you entered rather than a sign-in with a provider. The menu item on those reads Edit, and you correct the address, user name, or password in the dialog it opens.

EZ File Drop also emails you about a connection that has been failing, so a form that has quietly stopped delivering does not go unnoticed.

Check the form's upload destination

A folder that has been moved, renamed, or deleted in your cloud storage cannot receive files, and the transfer fails without being retried. Set the destination again on the form, then retry the failed submissions.

1. On the Upload Forms page, open the form.
2. On the form canvas, click the File Upload field. The left panel switches to Field Options.
3. Check the folder shown under "UPLOAD DESTINATION," and choose it again if it is missing.
4. Click Publish changes.

A form with more than one File Upload field has a destination for each one, so check them all.

Retry a failed transfer

There are two controls, and they do the same thing.

• Click Retry in the red banner on the expanded submission.
• Or click the three-dot menu at the right of the submission's row and click Retry Transfer.

The submission moves back to "Transferring" and a "Transfer restarted" message appears. If the cause is still there, it fails again with a new reason, so fix the cause first whenever the reason gives you something to act on.

Retrying needs edit access to the form. A teammate with view access can see the control but gets an error when they use it. See Set form permissions.

A retry does not count against your team's monthly upload allowance a second time. See How bandwidth works.

What EZ File Drop retries on its own

A transfer that fails for a reason that might clear by itself is retried automatically, five more times, before it is left for you. The gaps between attempts grow: 1 minute, then 5 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 1 hour, then 6 hours. A destination that was briefly unreachable usually clears in the first attempt or two without you doing anything.

Two kinds of failure are never retried automatically, because repeating them cannot help. One is a cloud account that needs reconnecting. The other is a destination folder that has been moved, renamed, or deleted. Both go to "Failed" immediately and wait for you.

A transfer that appears stuck

A submission that has been "Transferring" for more than 15 minutes with no progress shows "Transfer appears stuck." in its expanded row, with a Retry Transfer button. You don't need to do anything, because EZ File Drop checks for stalled transfers every couple of minutes and restarts them on its own, up to five times. Click Retry Transfer if you want to try right away, for example after reconnecting the account or freeing up storage space.

If all five attempts fail, the submission moves to "Failed" with the message "Transfer stuck: gave up after 5 automatic recovery attempts. Click Retry to try again." The files are still held, so a retry can still deliver them.

You get an email when a delivery fails

Notify on transfer failure is on by default on every form. It emails you once a submission has failed for good, whether it failed immediately or after all its automatic attempts. The subject begins "Action needed:" and names the upload destination.

The form owner is always emailed. To add anyone else, use the To row of that notification on the form's Notifications tab. One email is sent per failure rather than one per attempt, and a submission that fails again after a retry sends a new one. See Set up email notifications.

An "Incomplete" submission sends a separate Partial Upload email that names exactly which files are missing. It goes to the form owner and failure recipients only, never to the uploader.

How long you have to retry

EZ File Drop does not keep your files. A delivered file is removed about an hour after your cloud storage confirms it arrived, and any file is removed after 30 days whether it was delivered or not.

Those 30 days are your window. While the files are still held, a retry can deliver them. Once they are gone, retrying cannot bring them back, and the uploader has to submit again.

EZ File Drop emails you seven days before that happens, with a subject that begins "Action needed:" and names the form. That email is your last chance to act on the submission.

From that same point, a recovery panel headed "Recover files" appears on the expanded submission, so you can download the files and put them where they belong yourself. It shows for the person who owns the cloud connection the form delivers to, and only after a retry has already been tried at least once.

When an uploader says the upload did not work

An upload that was turned away before it was sent never reaches EZ File Drop, so it does not appear on the Submissions tab. One that started but never finished does appear, either as "Failed" with the message "This upload was never completed." or as "Incomplete" if some files made it. If nothing appears, ask the uploader what they saw.

• "Could not connect to the upload server. Please check your internet connection and try again." means the upload did not get through from their browser. Ask them to try again on a stable connection.
• A message naming file types, a file size, or a number of files means one of the form's own restrictions turned the file away before it was sent. See Restrict file types and set upload limits.
• A message saying the form is not accepting submissions is not an error. The form is either in Draft or outside a schedule you set. See Form statuses and Schedule a form to open and close.

On a free trial there is one more possibility. A trial has a hard upload allowance. Once it is used up, anyone opening one of that team's forms sees "This form's account has reached its trial bandwidth limit. The owner needs to upgrade to a paid plan before more files can be uploaded." Choosing a plan lifts the block, and forms on a paid plan are never blocked this way. See How bandwidth works.

Send a submission to support

1. Click the three-dot menu on the submission's row.
2. Click Get help with this submission.
3. The "Contact support" window opens with that submission's ID, its date, and the form's name already filled in. Describe what happened in the Message box.
4. Click Send message.

Sending it this way saves you from gathering the details yourself, and it points support to the exact transfer to look at.

Behavior notes

• A submission that failed at delivery still counts toward your team's monthly upload allowance, because the files were uploaded. A retry does not count a second time.
• A failed submission also counts toward a form's submission limit, where one is set. See Restrict file types and set upload limits.
• Files already delivered to your cloud storage are never affected by a failure on a later submission. Each submission is delivered on its own.
• Files delivered to an FTP or SFTP server show as plain text on the Submissions tab rather than as links, because there is no web address to open. That is normal and not a sign of a failure.
• A form on the Starter plan delivers and retries exactly the same way as one on the Business and Premium plans. Nothing on this page is plan-gated.