Digital Download - PDF Link not going to the correct Google Drive Folder

[DigiiAlley]

I sell Vintage Wall Art; the Digital Download comes as a PDF file I upload to my Etsy Listing that the buyer downloads. The PDF file has an imbedded link that takes the buyer to a Google Drive folder that has the (3 to 5 JPEG files).  I do this because the files are too large to put in an Etsy Listing.  I just had a situation where a buyer purchased a digital download, and the PDF Link took them to a different one of my Google Drive folders. (same series of maps but different folder) They sent a screen shot showing the link took them to a different folder. (State Maps, supposed to go to North Dakota but went to Oklahoma map instead) At first, I thought I must have uploaded the wrong PDF with a different link. I checked the Listing, and it was correct ND. But created a new one anyway just to be sure, tested the old one, it worked, tested the new one and it worked. Uploaded the new PDF w/ link, sent through the Etsy message board and the buyer LOL sends me a message next day it happened again. She sent another screen shot with the folder opening to Montana maps. I double checked the link in the Etsy message, and it opens to North Dakota for me every time. I'm totally stumped.... how can this happen?? And are our Digital Folders on Google Drive even secure? I have over hundreds of folders in my Google Drive linked to Listings. I'm really concerned. Has anyone else had a similar situation? Any suggestions to help prevent this from happening?

[TastefulArtisan]

Perhaps zip them and attach to the listing? Or are they just that big? I personally hate having to go to a google drive, dropbox, etc to get files I purchased. Especially when it's not disclosed that I will have to retrieve them. 

If they are small enough size wise, zip them, you can do up to 5 files.

Just a thought. Might prevent this from happening but at least it sounds like you have a decent buyer who is willing to help get it all sorted out. Can you email her the correct files?

Hopefully someone else who uses any of those services (I don't) will have some actual helpful advice : )

[SVGRox]

Did you try downloading the PDF from Etsy and try opening on device which has never been used for creating the file? Google will utilise cookies on your device so its not best to check the item on the device it was created on. 

[FunMaps]

I did use different browsers to check the link and it always works correctly for me. If the Link didn't work I could understand the problem but the link takes the buyer to a different folder, actually two different folders. When I create the link I am careful to double check after it has been created to make sure it goes to the right folder. But this situation has me stumped.

[LilPugPrints]

Hi, there, same problem here, could you find out what caused this issue ?

thanks !

[Amaradorn]

Someone else had the same issue 2 weeks ago but there didn't seem to be a solution. You could try asking if they figured it out.

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Digital-download-file-linking-to-wrong-listing/m-p/14...

[ATPTextures]

When you created your pdf link did you just add it to the pdf without editing where the link goes? Eg. I always add the link then go to edit; add link. If you don't do this your pdf will automatically retain the link from a previous product if you use a base template.  Even when you have deleted the old one and replaced it with the new one. So you will need to add that link twice on a previously used template.

[LilPugPrints]

Could you  please be more specific ?

I use a base template indeed, but I rename it prior to changing its link(s), then I save it, copy and paste, rename the copy and change with the next links etc

What's really weird is that there is no pattern to the issue, if open the links from the PDFs located on my PC it works 100% of the time, but if I download the exact same PDFs from the client's order dashboard, it sometimes work, sometimes points to the wrong product... 

Thanks in advance

Best

[LilPugPrints]

Hi, same issue here, I'm stumped as well, it's weird, I thought too I had made mistakes when creating the links embeded in my PDF template, but no, the links are good on my computer. Something that is really unbelievable is when I downloaded the PDF from the client's order, sometime it would open the wrong link, and I do the exact same thing again, it would go to the correct link !! Sometimes it works 5/6 times in a row and all of a sudden it points to the wrong link. 

Could you find a wrokaround ? I don't know what to do and I can't upload new products until this issue is solved, I hope I won't have to recreate close to two hundred PDF, some containing several links (embedded in a button)...

Please help,

Thanks in advance

[DigiiAlley]

I think I may have figured it out. This would be easier to describe if I could upload an image file but I'll try to be as clear as possible. So I use canva.com to create my Digital Download PDF page. I wanted it to have a cool vintage vibe so it has several layers of images and text. In the center is a vintage stamp image, above that I added what looks like an old metal library tag, in the middle of the tag is text that reads LINK. What I found was that the two back layers were just slightly different sized so when I deleted a past link and then added a new link I was actually working with different layers and ended up with two different links in the same general area of the PDF so if you clicked a little closer to the image edge you were sent to the wrong Google Drive folder. I was blaming the issue on Google Drive but I think the issue was actually in the creation of the PDF Link page. The way I corrected it was to first delete all links on all layers. Then I made sure to align the two image layers right below the word LINK perfectly so there was no opportunity to mistakenly select the wrong layer. (Canva does not allow you to merge layers like Photoshop) I add the Google Drive link to the selected image layer on top, mainly because it's a bigger target for the client to click on. I don't link anything to the text layer. I'm redoing each of the PDF Link pages for all of my 400+ listings. So far, I have not had any issues with the newly uploaded PDF's. Fingers crossed this solves the problem for good. If not I will come back and update this post. 

[LilPugPrints]

Hi, thanks so much for giving your feedback and I'm glad you figured it out ! I am creating my PDFs on Adobe acrobat but indeed I was just replacing the links, not deleting - saving - pasting new links in, so it might be the same kind of issue. I hope it is otherwise I don't know how I'll figure it out given the strangeness of the issue. Good luck with your PDFs !

[LibbysCozyCorner]

Thank you for the feedback - this is very valuable for me as a newbie to sharing files via Google Drive.
I am also going to use Canva to create the pdf files for sharing the links - now I will pay close attention to where I put the links.
Thanks again!

[LilPugPrints]

Alright so for those who might stumble accross the same issue, DigiiAlley was right, I found that somehow the first link I had created on my PDF template was hidden in an area around the button that contains the correct links, this way if someone clicks just near the button it would send them to the wrong google drive folder... I can't thank you enough DigiiAlley ! 

[AllardAndAxelDesigns]

I'm having the same problem. For now my only option is to regenerate Canva Template links, save as PDF then reupload the pdf on my listings. huhu