Web Page Publish Errors, PLEASE HELP

[nitka32]

Hello, Im new to this forum, I have searched for an answer to my issue for 2 weeks now so I am hoping someone here can help.

I have tried 3 versions of excel (07, 10, 13). All have had the same issue.

I have been using a spreadsheet that does an auto publish for about 2 years now. I publish it to a folder which I get to through ftp. So i set up the auto publish to through the ftp folder. I do a save as, select Web Page and then hit the publish button select the folder and bingo im good.

About 3 weeks ago i updated the spreadsheet saved it and it started to auto publish and I got this message.

"ftp://address.htm' cannot be accessed. The file may be corrupted, located on a server that is not responding, or read only"

As I look into my web files I see that it actually puts the first tab on the site along with the web folder that holds pictures, colors etc. The next 2 tabs will go through the ftp also but the web folders wont, there is no sign of them.

Then when I close it reopen and try again the same error comes and im stuck. Any help on this would be so great as im close to giving up.

like I said ive saved and published like this for 2 years, why is it happening now?

Thanks in advance.

[nitka32]

At least can anyone give me another forum or section I can post in to get help?

[slx]

Sounds like this is question you should be asking your IT dept or whoever is running your webpage.

[AlKey]

Since you tried with excel 07, 10 and 13 you may want to try to Save As your spreadsheet in Excel 97-2003 format and then try to upload.

[vayana]

Sounds like a file or folder permission problem.

Let's troubleshoot for a bit....

1: Can you check with your ftp program what the file permissions are for the folders and files in your webspace?
Particularly the files/folders you are trying to update. (e.g. 644, 775, 777)

(I heard filezilla is a good ftp-program, but I use bitvise ssh-client personally.)

After logging in, you right-click a file in your webspace, click > properties, click > permissions. It will display a 3 digit number which indicates the permissions, and it shows you visual check-boxes as well to see what the permissions are.
DO NOT mess around with these permissions if you don't know what you're doing. Just check and post back if you find something suspicious.
Suspicious being a file you try to update with a file-permission other than 755 or 775 or 644 or 664

Option 2:
2: If you save the web-file from excel locally (on your computer, not on the server), can you then manually upload the files through an ftp-client?
(this also gives you a clear picture of the file-permissions that you should check because you can see which files they are)

3: Have you checked how the file is uploaded to the server? ASCII or Binary?
If it's set to ASCII, then there's a big chance something won't upload correctly. Usually an auto-mode handles this fine, but you may have accidently hit a button.

Cheers,

Michael.

[nitka32]

Michael thank you for the reply.

1. The permissions on the folder I use are 755, (I know what your saying about not messing with this as Ive learned the hard way).

2. Yes currently I have been publishing locally and then copying the files in through a ftp client. That is the only way Iam up and running right now. This is fine for now but I really need to have excel auto publish the data, so I can edit the backround put banners on the page through dreamweaver ETC.

So I can get through with a few ftp clients so I think the permissions are ok. Excel puts an inital file in but during auto publish it errors out, and it wont create the folder that hold the pictures and formats.

3. Im not sure about ASCII or Binary, there is a chance I changed something, where do I find the settings for this to see what I have selected?

Thanks man!!!

[vayana]

He, I've just checked how to publish to an ftp with excel in excel 2013 since I've never used that function, but it appears that you can set up a mapped network drive or ftp address that excel will connect to through windows explorer API(NOT Internet Explorer).

Since this is the case I suspect that the credentials stored to access the ftp-location in explorer are incorrect.
So first thing you should try is to connect to your site's FTP through the explorer as described here

connect like that successfully at least once, so you know that works correctly.
Best is to map to the ftp directly using this guide.
Then try to publish to your ftp with excel again. If it doesn't work, then it's time to have a look in the registry.

I did a quick google on how to delete your ftp credentials that are stored for windows explorer, and this site explains how to do that. As suggested, do a backup first.

Another thing to do is to set up the publishing from within excel correctly:

1: Save as: select the location you mapped earlier.
2: save as type: html, which brings up a little menu at the bottom
3: under tools, check web options
4: check the encoding tab. Western European / windows is my default setting, which should be ok in most cases.

That should do the trick.

In short, I suggest:

Map the ftp-folder in windows explorer

save the credentials when mapping
Then select that location in excel to publish to and it should be good.

If it then doesn't work, delete the registry settings to the ftp as described above, restart pc, map the ftp-location again and try again.

If that still doesn't work, please post back where it goes wrong.

[nitka32]

Hello, thanks for the help again, Im pulling my hair out.

I have been connecting through explorer with the network path for some time. Thats actually how Ive been doing it and publishing before this error stuff. So I can access the the ftp folders and move files in explorer.

I followed the directions and deleted my current drive and made another. I then tried to publish and received the same error. I then deleted the registry and then when I selected the folder to publish to it did ask me for the user and password which I entered in and then after a min the error came up again.

I just dont get how Ive been doing this or 2 years and now out of nowhere I cant.

Is there anything else I can try?

[vayana]

It doesn't get any easier reading your comments. There are always more questions to answer to troubleshoot, so here we go:

Can you post the specific error that pops up that you are talking about, and maybe try to retrieve some more detailed info from windows error log if there is any available?

If you have access to another computer with excel, could you try to publish the same file in the same way to see if the problem persists?

Are you using a 3rd party firewall solution, and could you set up a rule to allow incoming/outgoing traffic for the port you are connecting to? Perhaps just disable it for a little while to try if that's getting in the way. Can you specifically allow excel to connect to the ftp port of your choice?

Are there any "special" characters in your ftp password?

Cheers,

Michael.