Troubleshooting: Sharing

Paperpile comes with powerful features for privately sharing papers and PDFs with your colleagues. Visit our sharing guide to learn more about how sharing with Paperpile works; here are some tips for what to do when you encounter common sharing issues.

A shared folder could not be found

This message may occur if a colleague added you to the folder using an email address other than the one associated with your Paperpile account. Contact your colleague and request that they add you to the folder using your Paperpile email address; once this is done, the shared folder will show up the next time you open Paperpile.

Alternatively, the shared folder may have been deleted by the owner and is not available anymore.

Problems with shared web links

You can share papers via unique web links. Anyone with the link can access the list of papers and associated PDFs and supplementary files. Some issues you may encounter accessing shared links and downloading shared files:

• Paper collection could not be found. The link you are trying to view may not be correct. Make sure you use the exact and complete link that was shared with you. Alternatively, if you are trying to view a shared folder through a web link, the owner might have deleted the folder and it is not available anymore. Ask the user who has shared the link with you for a correct and up-to date link.
• File download expired. Paperpile's sharing feature is intended for personal sharing of references and files between collaborators, not for public distribution of articles. In order to mitigate large-scale downloads, Paperpile limits the number of times a PDF may be downloaded via the web. Please ask the folder's owner to re-share the disabled item if you have a legitimate need to access the privately-shared content.
• File download error. File downloads only work if the owner of the file has synced the file to his or her Google Drive. If a download fails it might be a temporary problem with Google Drive servers. Try again after a few minutes. If the error persists ask the owner of the file to sign-in to Paperpile and double check that the file is synced to Google Drive and syncing is activated. More information how to activate syncing and check the syncing state of a file is available in our syncing guide.