Unable to find document at original source

Mike,

I believe you may have answered your own question. Whether your site is internal or behind a firewall or public makes no difference whatsoever in this case, but the documents themselves must be publicly accessible, even if those locations are not published anywhere/linked to for general use. This is the first item in the FAQ and several other points of the documentation reference this. If I can’t download the file myself given the URL – if I happened by chance to know it – then Google probably can’t, either, in order to perform the document conversion.

If your issue sounds other please give some more details. Thanks!

Kevin

Hello, I’m having the same error “unable to find the document at the original source”. The PDF is public: here. The test page with the problem: here.

What’s strange is that the problem is not with the plugin itself, because I tried going directly to Google Docs (docs.google.com/viewer) to generate a link, and it still doesn’t work. As with the original poster, I can click the link in the error message to download the original document with no problem.

I’ve searched everywhere for a solution. One person said it was solved when he switched to a different server. So, it’s possible my server is blocking access from Google Doc Viewer..?

Hi miyarakira,

Your test page loads the document correctly for me in all major browsers. Perhaps the issue was already resolved?

There is a problem with Google connecting to some servers, but the error is different, specifically that it “took too long” to find the document, not that it’s “unable to locate.” This may have been part of the issue though that has since resolved. I’m not sure, but at any rate, it’s working from here.

Thanks for your thorough description of the problem and for reviewing the other forum threads first – that saves me as a one-man developer and support team a lot of grief. I appreciate it.

Kevin

Dear support team,

I’m also having the same issues. When I’m trying to include a standard PDF file into my WP page, I constantly receive the error:
“Sorry, we were unable to find the document at the original source. Verify that the document still exists. You can also try to download the original document by clicking here.”.

As I thought it might be caused by my PDF or the location of my PDF as suggested by the message, I started to try other public PDF files from the Internet. I searched using Google for “example PDF” and found this one: https://www.selab.isti.cnr.it/ws-mate/example.pdf

When using this public PDF, I get the same error; the issue is still there. By the way, the viewer is able to locate the file, as you can download the file successfully via the viewer by clicking in the viewer on “here”.

You can access my page via: https://idcis.nl/algemene-voorwaarden/

By the way, my website is absolutely public, not behind any firewalls and reachable by Google.

Can somebody tell me what is wrong? What am I doing wrong? Is there an issue with GDE? Any help or suggestion is welcome.

PS: if you need more information, please let me know.

Many thanks in advance.

Dear support team,

I’m also having the same issues. When I’m trying to include a standard PDF file into my WP page, I constantly receive the error:
“Sorry, we were unable to find the document at the original source. Verify that the document still exists. You can also try to download the original document by clicking here.”.

As I thought it might be caused by my PDF or the location of my PDF as suggested by the message, I started to try other public PDF files from the Internet. I searched using Google for “example PDF” and found this one: https://www.selab.isti.cnr.it/ws-mate/example.pdf

When using this public PDF, I get the same error; the issue is still there. By the way, the viewer is able to locate the file, as you can download the file successfully via the viewer by clicking in the viewer on “here”.

You can access my page via: https://idcis.nl/algemene-voorwaarden/

By the way, my website is absolutely public, not behind any firewalls and reachable by Google.

Can somebody tell me what is wrong? What am I doing wrong? Is there an issue with GDE? Any help or suggestion is welcome.

PS: if you need more information, please let me know.

Many thanks in advance.

Hi arfo,

I’m the whole support team. Nice to meet you. ??

I have the added disadvantage of not speaking Dutch (a guess from the domain extension), but I can observe a few things on the links you’ve given.

You’re using the private documents feature, it appears, and I can’t access the document either when I click in the viewer on “here”. Maybe you are loading from cache or maybe the document really isn’t reachable from the USA, where Google is.

The “example” link you provided, https://www.selab.isti.cnr.it/ws-mate/example.pdf works correctly for me, without errors.

I would suggest you try using the viewer in a normal mode – do not mask the URL or disallow downloads, etc. – and see if the problem resolves. There may be an issue with private document support but we should determine if you can get it working correctly with your documents using standard means first.

Thanks,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I’m indeed Dutch; you guessed right! After I posted this post I did change the setting shortly to support private documents. However, I changed it back almost immediately as I realized that this could/would not be very supportive for anyone trying to help me ??

So, please could you check again? It’s definitely now back to normal/default and NOT supporting private documents only. I made an export of my profiles/settings, so you can see my settings below:

{"profiles":[{"profile_id":"1","profile_name":"default","profile_desc":"This is the default profile, used when no profile is specified.","profile_data":"a:22:{s:6:\"viewer\";s:8:\"standard\";s:13:\"default_width\";s:4:\"100%\";s:14:\"default_height\";s:5:\"500px\";s:9:\"tb_mobile\";s:7:\"default\";s:8:\"tb_flags\";s:0:\"\";s:10:\"tb_fullscr\";s:7:\"default\";s:10:\"tb_fullwin\";s:3:\"new\";s:11:\"tb_fulluser\";s:2:\"no\";s:8:\"tb_print\";s:3:\"yes\";s:10:\"vw_bgcolor\";s:7:\"#EBEBEB\";s:10:\"vw_pbcolor\";s:7:\"#DADADA\";s:6:\"vw_css\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"vw_flags\";s:1:\"x\";s:8:\"language\";s:5:\"en_GB\";s:8:\"base_url\";s:35:\"http:\/\/idcis.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/\";s:9:\"link_show\";s:3:\"all\";s:9:\"link_mask\";s:2:\"no\";s:10:\"link_block\";s:2:\"no\";s:9:\"link_text\";s:23:\"Download (%FILE, %SIZE)\";s:8:\"link_pos\";s:5:\"below\";s:10:\"link_force\";s:3:\"yes\";s:5:\"cache\";s:2:\"on\";}"},{"profile_id":"2","profile_name":"max-doc-security","profile_desc":"Hide document location and text selection, prevent downloads","profile_data":"a:22:{s:6:\"viewer\";s:8:\"enhanced\";s:13:\"default_width\";s:4:\"100%\";s:14:\"default_height\";s:5:\"500px\";s:9:\"tb_mobile\";s:7:\"default\";s:8:\"tb_flags\";s:0:\"\";s:10:\"tb_fullscr\";s:6:\"viewer\";s:10:\"tb_fullwin\";s:3:\"new\";s:11:\"tb_fulluser\";s:2:\"no\";s:8:\"tb_print\";s:2:\"no\";s:10:\"vw_bgcolor\";s:7:\"#EBEBEB\";s:10:\"vw_pbcolor\";s:7:\"#DADADA\";s:6:\"vw_css\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"vw_flags\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"language\";s:2:\"nl\";s:8:\"base_url\";s:35:\"http:\/\/idcis.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/\";s:9:\"link_show\";s:4:\"none\";s:9:\"link_mask\";s:2:\"no\";s:10:\"link_block\";s:3:\"yes\";s:9:\"link_text\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"link_pos\";s:5:\"below\";s:10:\"link_force\";s:2:\"no\";s:5:\"cache\";s:2:\"on\";}"},{"profile_id":"3","profile_name":"dark","profile_desc":"Dark-colored theme, example of custom CSS option","profile_data":"a:22:{s:6:\"viewer\";s:8:\"enhanced\";s:13:\"default_width\";s:4:\"100%\";s:14:\"default_height\";s:5:\"500px\";s:9:\"tb_mobile\";s:7:\"default\";s:8:\"tb_flags\";s:0:\"\";s:10:\"tb_fullscr\";s:6:\"viewer\";s:10:\"tb_fullwin\";s:3:\"new\";s:11:\"tb_fulluser\";s:2:\"no\";s:8:\"tb_print\";s:2:\"no\";s:10:\"vw_bgcolor\";s:0:\"\";s:10:\"vw_pbcolor\";s:0:\"\";s:6:\"vw_css\";s:76:\"http:\/\/idcis.nl\/wp-content\/plugins\/google-document-embedder\/css\/gde-dark.css\";s:8:\"vw_flags\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"language\";s:2:\"nl\";s:8:\"base_url\";s:35:\"http:\/\/idcis.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/\";s:9:\"link_show\";s:3:\"all\";s:9:\"link_mask\";s:2:\"no\";s:10:\"link_block\";s:2:\"no\";s:9:\"link_text\";s:23:\"Download (%TYPE, %SIZE)\";s:8:\"link_pos\";s:5:\"below\";s:10:\"link_force\";s:2:\"no\";s:5:\"cache\";s:2:\"on\";}"}],"settings":{"ed_disable":"no","ed_extend_upload":"yes","ed_embed_sc":"yes","file_maxsize":"5","error_check":"yes","error_display":"yes","error_log":"yes","beta_check":"yes","ga_enable":"no","ga_category":"Google Doc Embedder","ga_label":"url"}}

By the way, the document linked on the page is in fact the external document mentioned “example.pdf”. So my page should be showing you exactly the same document as when you would follow the original link. At least for the download feature, that should not make any difference. But more important, Google is able to find that document as it’s not stored on my website, but at https://www.selab.isti.cnr.it if you know what I mean…

Please note that I do appreciate your help very much and would like to thanks you in advance for the support and effort.

Please let me know what I’m doing wrong or if you need more information.
Thanks,

Arie

Hi Arie,

Thanks for the added information. I can see the error message now. I can view the document when I download but the viewer can’t see it. It doesn’t appear there is anything you’re doing wrong as far as the plugin is concerned. This looks like a Google issue, or a network issue between your server and Google.

You could try hosting the document on a server other than “idcis.nl” just to see if it’s able to connect to the document via another host. Other than that I can only say I agree it is very strange. Which I know is not very helpful; sorry about that. Some people have had good luck using links from Dropbox if you don’t have another option.

If I come to any other ideas I’ll let you know. Thanks for your patience.

I had the same issue which always occurred only then when my browser was logged-in at a Google account simultaneously (e.g. Google Plus or YouTube).
But by todays plugin update to ‘Google Doc Embedder’ version 2.5.8 this error seems to be eliminated. For me it works fine at my site https://katja.at/verantwortung/muetter

Hi, miyarakira. I have visited your test page and the PDF file it shows correctly. How did you solve the problem? I’m having the same problem.

Hi, Gerhard Lichtenauer. I have installed 2.5.8 version and it doesn’t work. But, yes I see your PDFs withot any problem.

2.5.8 is working well, rulo. Please describe your problem and give us a link to an example and I’ll try to help you.

@rulo4, do you have the issue only when logged in to some of Google-accounts (e.g. YouTube or Google Plus)? Then try again by logging out of it. Is there a difference between Browsers (Firefox or Chrome)?

Some days ogo, I had the problem with Google-Chrome Browser too (under 2.5.8 and although it already worked with Mozilla Firefox) but today it works right with Chrome unexpectedly. I don’t know why?

I highly encourage those who are having trouble to read the documentation; it is updated frequently and addresses issues with cross-browser compatibility, error messages, certain features seeming inaccessible, and the scoop on how GDE interacts with Google accounts.

https://www.davistribe.org/gde/notes/

Thanks!

“Sorry, we were unable to find the document at the original source. Verify that the document still exists. You can also try to download the original document by clicking here.”

I have tried everything I can think of, and some that someone else has thought of, yet “no cigar”.

IE 11.0.9600.16521, Firefox 28.0, Chrome 33.0.1750.154 m. All give the same error message.

Note that clicking on “here” brings up the .pdf.

Any and all input on this is appreciated. This plugin looks to be exactly what we need, once it is working.

Shortcode the program put into the post…

[gview file=”https://localhost/library/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Minutes-120913.pdf”%5D

This IS the location of the document.

Hi there,

The first item in the plugin FAQ addresses this issue for you.

Where can the files live?

The file to embed must first be publicly available somewhere on the internet, in order for Google to retrieve the document for conversion. You can upload it to your WordPress site using the standard techniques, or link to a file on another site. For testing purposes, your site can run locally or on private networks, but the documents you wish to embed must be publicly accessible.

Thus, the document being on “localhost” is not supported, even if the site itself is on localhost. The plugin works by sending the document to a Google service to perform conversion. Google can’t access your localhost, so you get no document conversion. You can store the files in some other temporary location *accessible online* if you’d like to try out the plugin locally.

Thanks,

Kevin