🐈
» Forums » Freelancers » Re: Corruption of Attached Microsoft Excel Fi...
Page options
wlyonsatl
Community Member

Corruption of Attached Microsoft Excel Files

Upwork,

 

Every Microsoft Excel file a client has sent me as an attachment to a message today has been rejected by my Chrome browswer with the error message:

 

"File is dangerous, so Chrome blocked it."

 

Using the new Microsoft Edge browser on an attachment resulted in this error message:

 

“Excel cannot open the file ‘xxx.xlsx’ because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.”

 

I asked the client to send the same file directly via email and it opened without incident.

 

What's going on here?

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
louisaj
Community Member

This started last night. The only way around it right now is to very temporary switch off the privacy setting in Google Chrome settings and then switch it back on after downloading. I had my client do a check their end and there was no virus, so I came on here last night and saw it was happening again, so quickly disabled my chrome settings, downloaded the file, then popped the security back on. 

View solution in original post

30 REPLIES 30
louisaj
Community Member

This started last night. The only way around it right now is to very temporary switch off the privacy setting in Google Chrome settings and then switch it back on after downloading. I had my client do a check their end and there was no virus, so I came on here last night and saw it was happening again, so quickly disabled my chrome settings, downloaded the file, then popped the security back on. 

Thanks, Louisa.

 

I hope this gets fixed quickly. I don't like to fiddle with my browser settings - there's no telling what the knock-on effects will be - so I'll have my clients send me their files via email for the time being.

This is a big problem... and a frequently recurring one, if one relies on Upwork for file transfers.

 

Professional level freelancers aware of this avoid using Upwork for serious file transfer needs and use other methods. FTP, Dropbox, email, etc.


Preston H wrote:

Professional level freelancers aware of this avoid using Upwork for serious file transfer needs and use other methods. FTP, Dropbox, email, etc.


And, of course, we won't be able to do that anymore before being hired come the 26th...

re: "And, of course, we won't be able to do that anymore before being hired come the 26th..."

 

We will still be able to use FTP before being hired.

 

As this is going to be Upwork's preferred explicitly allowed alternative file transfer method... anyone not familiar with FTP should become so.

 

I absolutely adore FTP.


Preston H wrote:

 

I absolutely adore FTP.


I'm sure FTP is thrilled to hear that... I'm sure clients will be equally thrilled to have to learn how to use FTP just to get a price for some work they need doing.

 


Preston H wrote:

As this is going to be Upwork's preferred explicitly allowed alternative file transfer method... 


It is? According to whom?

I'm a professional, Preston, and probably send and receive at least 5 - 10 Excel files per day as attachments to Upwork messages.

 

Even if other freelancers already have problems sending files in other formats or larger sizes, that is not an excuse for accepting new weaknesses in the messaging system.

 

I don't remember ever having this problem before and hope Upwork will very soon fix whatever problem has been introduced over the past 24 hours. I REALLY don't want to have to rely on multiple messaging systems to get my Upwork-related work done.

In the past Upwork's upload software has removed content from files that it deems suspicious, mutilating even macro-free files like .xlsx and .docx. I would guess that its mutilation algorithm is now also leaving the files in a corrupted state. That said, I thought that after previous complaints they introduced an option for users to choose to download the original, unmutilated file. Are you seeing that option? (I haven't seen for myself as I rarely send files through the Upwork app any more.)

Thanks, Richard.

 

I do remember they introduced that option but have never had to use it.

 

If Upwork has now decided it will force us to use the messaging system differently, they need to specifically tell us.

 

Just making such a change without notice and leaving it to us to determine a workaround would be complete BS.

re: "It is? According to whom?"

 

That is a legitimate question.

 

I thought that this was part of the official Upwork announcement, here:

 

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Announcements/Communicating-On-and-Outside-of-Upwork-Terms-of-Servic...

 

Screen Shot 2020-06-14 at 8.01.17 AM.png

 

I just now took a look.

I do NOT see FTP specified there.
Now Dropbox is specified.

 

Moreover Upwork's "integration" is specified.

 

I thought that using an FTP site which doesn't require email address (as is common) was specified previously in an official Upwork posting, maybe even in this very location.

 

But after re-reading this page carefully, I think I remembered this wrong.

 

I remembered thinking that FTP was explicitly named by Upwork. But I can't find that anywhere.

 

I think using FTP to share files prior to having a contract is clearly allowed, because FTP can be used without sharing contact inormation.


But Upwork's official announcement about this policy actually identifies Dropbox by name AND states that an email address CAN BE SHARED if this is done for the purpose of sharing files.

 

So that would mean that any number of file-sharing methods would be allowed...

I've been having this problem since yesterday as well - a client sent me a bunch of files attached to the message board, and all of them were blocked as "unsafe". Of course I opened a Dropbox folder and asked him to use that instead, but he seemed annoyed by the inconvenience and told me that there was nothing wrong with his files (which was undoubtedly true). I don't know why this happened; the files weren't large or unusual in any way, and I've never had trouble downloading files from the message board before. Upwork does need to look into this.

GOOD NEWS!

 

I've been able to download a file from Upwork Messages. I know I said I rarely do that any more, but it just so happens a client sent me a file that way a couple of days ago. I hadn't yet looked at it, and I forgot that I'd already downloaded it, so I just tried downloading it again. I got the same Chrome error message that other people have described. I didn't click the "Discard" button, and when I looked at the download folder I found the file there, although it had been renamed to "Unconfirmed 500905.crdownload". I just renamed it to the correct name, with extension, and presto it's perfectly OK. Since I then realised that I'd downloaded the file already, I was even able to compare it with the version I downloaded normally (before this problem started), and they're identical.

 

Incidentally, this is is a macro-enable Excel file (.xlsm) and its macros are intact.

P.S. So my theory that Upwork had corrupted the file turned out to be false. There must be something else that's making Chrome suspicious.


Richard W wrote:

P.S. So my theory that Upwork had corrupted the file turned out to be false. There must be something else that's making Chrome suspicious.


But this is a problem too - I don't want to just ignore error messages, in case any files really are corrupt. This only started happening to me yesterday, so something must have changed within the past few days.

ffoytek
Community Member

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**, for some reason I'm having getting a "This file is Dangerous, so Chrome has blocked it." message when I try to open up attachments posted here on UpWork. I don't know if it is associated with the new UpWork rule of no prior contact before a contract is open or not. I will post this message also on the UpWork help site. Thank you for considering me for your project.

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Frances,

 

I would like to confirm that we have a known problem and would recommend using Firefox to download your files. If you`re still experiencing the same problem, let me know. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Thanks for confirming there is a known problem that Upwork is working to resolve, Goran.

 

In the future, Upwork should push out notification to all users when it becomes aware of such a "known" problem. We users shouldn't have to find out from others that there is a problem and try to figure out workarounds for each other.

 

Can we expect to be notified by Upwork when a fix is made, or do we just have to keep trying to use Chrome until it works correctly again?

Hi Will,

Rest assured, we will post an update here once this is resolved. I will also share your feedback with our team about sending informational notifications. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

After reading this thread, I tried to download my files with Firefox instead, but it also gave me a warning saying the files were dangerous.

Unless the source of the problem has been fixed, switching to Firefox will not help. Files are also marked as "dangerous" and blocked from downloading by Firefox as well.

Hi all,

 

We appreciate your patience while we were getting this fixed. I'd like to confirm that the issue has been resolved and you should be able to access attachments in Messages now. If you still run into any issues, please let us know.

 

Thank you.

 

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

It seems this gremlin has returned, but in a .doc file this time.

 

It's really embarrassing when a client receives a file with content different than what was sent, without any explanation that the file has been altered!

 

Please can you investigate?

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry about the frustration actions our security systems might have taken on the file you provided created. You might be already aware but just noting that in some cases, malware scanning will remove embedded macros, formulas or active content that is deemed potentially malicious. 

 

That said, I asked our team to check the file in question to confirm if the content in question was removed by malware scanning system and if it was, if the content was actioned in accordance to our internal procedures.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Thank you Vladimir

 

In my case the attached document was plain text, no formulas, macros, hyperlinks, not even anything bold or italicised or underlined!

 

The last paragraph was simply removed.

 

The worst part is that this was part of a test job to see if I had the appropriate skills, but somehow Upwork decided to physically alter my document.

 

If you're going to make alterations, surely an extra line of code won't hurt which informs both parties of exactly which content was removed is the right thing to do?

 

At a minimum use one of your blue flashy radio buttons to alert that there has been a change made.

 

I'd love to know which part of the plain text was deemed malicious in this case...

 


Vladimir G wrote:

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry about the frustration actions our security systems might have taken on the file you provided created. You might be already aware but just noting that in some cases, malware scanning will remove embedded macros, formulas or active content that is deemed potentially malicious. 

 

That said, I asked our team to check the file in question to confirm if the content in question was removed by malware scanning system and if it was, if the content was actioned in accordance to our internal procedures.


 

Thanks for the follow-up, David. I can confirm I had identified the paragraph in question and already asked our team to review it. I won't be able to provide any other information at the moment but will follow up with you directly with an update, to confirm whether the content in your file was removed by our team and if it was done in line with our internal procedures or not.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

After wasting half an hour of my life trying to respond to your message privately on three separate devices, it seems this is the only way to respond to you Vladimir.

The simple answer is:
Yes, it’s the original file I’ve attached to several messages and emailed to customer support.
However it’s blatantly obvious that if one keeps using the same method to upload a file - which is the problem we’re dealing with, then another method up upload is required - either email or Dropbox.
This is really frustrating and unnecessary.
Please fix your hopelessly inefficient systems as a priority before introducing unnecessary features that continually piss off the community!

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry about the issue you experienced trying to respond to my private message.

Thanks for confirming. Our team checked and confirmed that our security system didn't action or modify the doc you attached in Messages. Our team compared the doc you uploaded to the doc you provided yesterday and it appears that two docs are identical. The question I sent you earlier today was intended to double-confirm you've provided the source file. Is it possible you might have uploaded one version of the doc and later modified it without uploading it again?

 

I've had a lengthy conversation with our team that conducted the investigation, reviewed and compared all the files, both from Messages and the one you additionally provided. They found that the file your client received is exactly byte to byte the same doc that you provided yesterday. I can also verify this by comparing the source doc and the PDF you subsequently shared with your client, with the source doc not including the last paragraph in question that is part of the PDF file.

~ Vladimir
Upwork


Vladimir G wrote:

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry about the issue you experienced trying to respond to my private message.

Thanks for confirming. Our team checked and confirmed that our security system didn't action or modify the doc you attached in Messages. Our team compared the doc you uploaded to the doc you provided yesterday and it appears that two docs are identical. The question I sent you earlier today was intended to double-confirm you've provided the source file. Is it possible you might have uploaded one version of the doc and later modified it without uploading it again?

 

I've had a lengthy conversation with our team that conducted the investigation, reviewed and compared all the files, both from Messages and the one you additionally provided. They found that the file your client received is exactly byte to byte the same doc that you provided yesterday. I can also verify this by comparing the source doc and the PDF you subsequently shared with your client, with the source doc not including the last paragraph in question that is part of the PDF file.


So my client was sent the exact same file twice, and has provided a screen shot of what it looks like on their end (mysteriously missing the last paragraph)

It sounds like your team is going to write this one off as "solved" however it is not.

Why would I ask you to investigate if there was any doubt as to version control?

There is only one file with one date and when using the Upwork system to upload files, it has somehow been modified on the other end.

In future I'll refrain from using Upwork to upload files if this is the best response you can come up with.

To others reading this, please be reminded that Upwork clearly still has an issue with modifying files whether they choose to admit it or not, so use it at your own peril!

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry you feel this way. Again, even disregarding the findings our team shared which are a product of a detailed and meticulous review, I personally can confirm that the last paragraph in question, which is part of the later provided PDF file and the content in question here, isn't appearing in the file you shared with me yesterday, which is the source file.

Feel free to follow up with me directly if you have any other information you'd like to provide and I'll be glad to look into this further and get our team involved. We are committed into investigating each and every report of potential problems on our platform and confirming if it's an issue or not.

 

 

~ Vladimir
Upwork


Vladimir G wrote:

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry you feel this way. Again, even disregarding the findings our team shared which are a product of a detailed and meticulous review, I personally can confirm that the last paragraph in question, which is part of the later provided PDF file and the content in question here, isn't appearing in the file you shared with me yesterday, which is the source file.

Feel free to follow up with me directly if you have any other information you'd like to provide and I'll be glad to look into this further and get our team involved. We are committed into investigating each and every report of potential problems on our platform and confirming if it's an issue or not.

 

 


A meticulous investigation would involve asking both parties exactly what internet browser, operating system and word processing software versions they were using to get to the bottom of it.

Nobody has asked these questions which is just typical of Upwork's fault finding methods.

Clearly nobody wants to bother the client as it's unprofessional, but you admitting that the paragraph was missing when you looked at it, and taking my word that there is only one file in question here, perhaps your technical team can have a conversation with me directly in this case - or is that against something in your ToS?

There was a history to this thread with Excel spreadsheets being altered, and not once was the underlying problem identified as to what caused the issues, so perhaps some transparency is needed?

I'm still waiting for the "Previous Client" bug not showing on the job feed to be fully explained as sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Again, no technical team reaching out, no explanation, just forget about it and it will go away mentality.

This has to change Upwork, please!

Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths