Disable document file preview
Asked by david lovelace:

I ++**DO NOT**++ want to preview a document (.doc, .pdf, etc) in Confluence. I WANT to download it when I select it. How do I accomplish this?


Answers:
author: sagebrushgardener
body: What I do is edit the link manually.

1. Go to the attachments page (... / Attachments).

2. Right-click on the file you want, then Copy Link Location.

3. Go back to Edit mode.

4. Click on the link you want to change, then Edit / Advanced.

5. Paste the link you copied into the "Link" field. (I usually delete the "?api=2" at the end, but it probably doesn't matter.)

6. Save

comments: author: Mike McNamara
body: Hmmm... do not see these steps working for me. With the updated link (i.e. added \&api=v2, etc to file name) it still opens in preview mode when clicked. I see no difference in behavior (Confluence 6.13.1). Does this work for you?


author: Philipp Rass
body: Works perfectly for me, thank you!


author: Ronald Verheul
body: Does Jira really expect me to take these steps for every attachment in out system? They must be joking.

What Jira fails to understand is that software, like Jira, is meant to make my life **easier**, not more difficult as Jira does.


author: James McLean
body: It has been a year. Has any solution to this been implemented?

So annoying that Atlassian has forced on us this "powerful new feature" which is not powerful (xlsx previews are laughably bad), and entirely beyond the control of the authors (that is, the users! This is supposed to be a wiki.)


author: Stefan Baader
body: Disabling the preview will also disable to click on an image and get a larger view. Have a look on this issue and vote for a solution: <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-36899>

comments: author: Joyce
body: Chanced upon your hack in the comments, works like a charm even for 6.11.2. Thanks a lot!


author: AnnWorley
body: Go to \<base_URL\>plugins/servlet/upm/manage/all, find Confluence Previews and disable it:

![Screen Shot 2017-07-17 at 2.54.22 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/3241i1D58586F70B81A42/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2017-07-17 at 2.54.22 PM.png")

comments: author: david lovelace
body: That wants me to be an admin. I'm a user and I (and many others) find this feature very annoying. Can't I turn off this feature as a user?

I have found that the link with preview looks something like:

[http://xxx.xxx.com/pages/viewviewpage.action?spaceKey=AAA\&title=BBB\&preview=PATHtoPDF#CCC](http://xxx.xxx.com/pages/viewviewpage.action?spaceKey=AAA&title=BBB&preview=PATHtoPDF#CCC)

and if I just press middle click which will simply download the file, the link looks like:

<http://xxx.xxx.com/pages/viewviewpage.action?spaceKey=>AAA\&title=BBB#CCC

Note that the "\&preview=..." is gone.

Do I need to write a Greasemonkey script to clean up these annoyinig links? There has to be a better way to do this.


author: AnnWorley
body: There isn't a setting in the user profile for turning off file preview. You can right click an embedded attachment and choose Save As (phrase depends on browser) to download it without previewing first.


author: soumyajit
body: I want to only disable xlsx preview ? Is it possible.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: No, disabling the add-on does it for all users and file types.


author: Harley Liston
body: Something has changed since the new Jira view has been forced on all Jira instances hosted in the Cloud. I've been digging for a week but can not find a way to disable the Cloud preview of Attachments.

Also, when we try to right click and download, it provides an HTML download not the actual attachment.

Please help, I can't find the "Confluence Preview" plugin either.


author: Anh Phi NGUYEN
body: Thanks, I found it. (Confluence 6.15.2). Must be Jira administrator. You need to paste "plugins/servlet/upm/manage/all" after your URL. For example, my log in URL is: [https://confluence.xyz.com](https://confluence.xyz.com?) then the link should be <https://confluence.xyz.com/plugins/servlet/upm/manage/all>.

Or you can select cog wheel -\> General configuration -\> Manage apps -\> select "All apps" from dropdown list box -\> Ctrl+F (for searching) -\> type Previews (or scroll down over half page to see it)


author: Harley Liston
body: Thank Anh Phi Nguyen,   

But unfortunately, we are not paying or utilizing confluence in our Atlassian Cloud account. Which means we have no way to disable this feature in Cloud Jira. Reaching out to Atlassian Support did not relinquish any answers either.

The New Jira View wont let you right-click and save-as, plus there is now no metadata (date, size, etc) about when a File was attached to a Jira. Which leaves us rummaging around trying to figure out which are new attachments and which ones are old.


author: Anh Nguyen
body: Sorry I missed an information from my reply that is I am using Confluence on Data Centre, not Cloud.