attaching multiple files with same name
Asked by AS:

Hi All,

I am looking to upload DIFFERENT files with same name but it keeps creating new versions of it due to name being the same. Is there anyway to alter this behaviour have have either: auto unique rename or an alert if a version of file already exists?


Answers:
author: Dominic Lagger
body: Hi [@Aqib](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1614515)_sherwani

This is an extract from the documentation
> If you upload a file with the same name as an existing attachment on the same page, Confluence will overwrite the existing attachment. Version history is kept for all attachments. See Manage Filesto find out more.
>
> Any changes you make to the source file will not affect the copy that was uploaded to Confluence. To update the Confluence copy, you need to upload the new version of the file.

So, there is no option to change this behaviour.

Why you want to do this?

Regards, Dominic

comments: author: Sara Nicholson
body: Not to hijack but I have some examples of why I'd want this.

**Use case 1:**

As a designer, I want to upload images to Confluence to solicit feedback.

As a designer, I want to update designs to the same file locally but keep a visual history of all changes on the Confluence page.

As a designer, I don't want to keep renaming a file locally just so it doesn't get overwritten on Confluence.

<br />

**Use case 2:**

As a designer, I want to upload screenshots taken with Skitch.

* Skitch has saved the screenshots with the same name since they were taken from the same window

As a designer, I want all of my screenshots to appear as different images, not overwrite each other.

Having a system that either warns if you have the same filename being uploaded, renames the used files automatically or just allow multiple uploads with the same filename would be immensely helpful to some of us.


author: Dominic Lagger
body: Hi [@Sara Nicholson](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3225861)

**Use case 1:**

If you upload a file, the "old" file isn't gone. Every attachment has it's own history.

**Use case 2:**

I'm not aware, that there's a plugin which could display every version of an attachment. If you are on server, I'm sure it would be possible to write an user macro, which would display every version of an attachment.

Regards, Dominic


author: Michael Miller
body: Here is my scenario. I have a page with a table. Each row contains a contents file. The file may contain different contents, but the file name same is always the same. I understand overwriting an attachment in a page, but within a table, each cell should be independent. Dropping a file in one cell should not overwrite a file in another cell.


author: Marcel Mohr
body: I would also vote for the possibility to add multiple files (pictures) with the same filename.

E.g. Auto-generated plots that are shown on a confluence pages have the same filename.

Azure Wiki renames the uploaded files to by itself. But this is also not good in every case. Maybe a suffix for each file, like a number or timestamp. Or a user switch, if files should be overwritten or timestamped?.


author: David at David Simpson Apps
body: This is expected behaviour.

If you want multiple files attached rather than multiple versions of the same file, give them different names.

comments: author: Elias Hajjar
body: Can you please explain why would someone want this expected behaviour?


author: TomoyukiAota
body: Confluence should give a warning message when the files are overwritten by uploading another file with the same filename.

I hit a problem that 1) running a script to generate different images with different settings (still having the same filename), 2) pasting the images into two different places in the same page (to compare the result of the different settings of the script), and finally 3) seeing the same image in two places in the page, which confused me a lot.


Tags: atl-gruland

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