Issue symptoms
Inline images in Guide articles display for all users as a broken link or don't display for anonymous users or end users.
This problem occurs where images are attached as inline attachments to another article that is:
- Restricted to a specific group of users
- In draft status
- In archived status
Due to any of these reasons, the image is displayed as a broken link, followed by the name of the image:
Resolution steps
These are options to fix the problem. If the article is:
- If the article is restricted to a specific group of users, update the restriction settings.
- If the article is in draft status, publish the article.
- If the article is in archived status, restore the article.
Alternatively, download the attachments and upload them individually to each article or use the Guide assets section. This is the recommended approach.
To identify the location of attachment in the original article
- Inspect the individual element in the console and copy its unique numerical ID:
-
Run the following API call for article attachments:
https://{{subdomain}}.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/attachments/123456789.jsonReplace the subdomain with your subdomain name and the unique ID value with that of one the original article inline attachment.
You'll get the response below that retrieves the original article source.
{
"article_attachment": {
"id": 123456789,
"url": "https://subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/attachments/123456789",
"article_id": 360001328736,
"display_file_name": "Screen Shot 2020-02.png",
"file_name": "Screen_Shot_2020-02.png",
"content_url": "https://subdomain.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/1233456789/Screen_Shot_2020-02.png",
"relative_path": "/hc/article_attachments/123456789/Screen_Shot_2020-02.png",
"content_type": "image/png",
"size": 218402,
"inline": true,
"created_at": "2020-02-30T16:30:33Z",
"updated_at": "2020-02-30T16:45:03Z"
}
}
After you've identified the article's unique ID, add it to any knowledge base article editor and this returns the article, for example:
https://{{subdomain}}.zendesk.com/knowledge/articles/360001328736/en-us?brand_id=3149466
For more information, see the section: Working with articles in the knowledge base.
10 Comments
I run the json and sure enough, it returns the missing files.
But that just tells me that the missing files are indeed in the location where they are being called. This is also evident because I can see the images in both the Help Center Preview as End User mode and the Help Center when logged in as an Agent.
The file clearly exists. Zendesk just isn't displaying it for End Users. Why?
I am uploading via API, so I cannot go into each individual article and upload the image file again.
Hi,
did you perhaps found the solution?
Facing exactly the same issue here. I thought workaround would be to create unassociated attachment, parse the response json to get url and then regex through my article content substituting img src url's, prior to uploading the article. It worked in my preview, but I see this is not a sustainable solution.
I don't get what's the point of having an API if you're having to do things in editor manually.
Thanks
Are there any developments/new fixes for this issue? I agree, this is not a sustainable solution at all. Plus the behavior of this issue is inconsistent so it's difficult to avoid. A few of our users have already reported articles with missing images and we don't know how to exactly avoid it.
Hi,
workaround is that you first create article, then obtain article id, which you use when uploading attachments so that attachments are tied to the article. In response json you get an absolute attachment path so you can use regex to substitute relative paths in your article for absolute paths obtained as a response of attachment upload and then use article update API to upload / publish your article with proper attachment paths.
Thanks for all your comments! Very helpful and looking into my issue now to see if this works. :)
This is a huge issue if using any kind of API to automatically publish articles into Zendesk. I am using MadCap's Zendesk Connector, and so many images are broken. Because it is published through the API, I cannot manually adjust in Zendesk.
Is there an estimate for providing a fix, rather than just a workaround?
I think it's a bit of a cop-out to just say "If the article is restricted to a specific group of users, update the restriction settings."! We NEED our articles to be restricted by user group, in order to protect intellectual protocol. It's OK once the users are logged into Zendesk - they can see the images they're supposed to. The problem is that we are also displaying the articles on our app via a Pendo widget. In that widget, users can see the articles they're supposed to, but all the image links in the articles look broken as the images are hidden behind SSO in Zendesk, and there appears to be no solution.
Any update on this issue?? I have been adding screenshots as I go when creating articles - they were fine at the time of publish, however, it seems like the images copy-pasted always become broken after a while but not the ones that were uploaded.
The same issue here. We've started uploading images in GC and then adding absolute image links, but this creates additional work.
I've been in a long back and forth emailing their support. They insist that it's a problem with my images being in draft mode, or inline, or restricted. But it's not the case. What I find is that the issue is inconsistent. I thought I figured out a workaround but after a week, some images had the problem again. It's hard to figure out even a workaround when the problem is inconsistent. :(
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