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Desktop Connector troubleshooting

Sjaak Velthoven avatar
Written by Sjaak Velthoven
Updated this week

In this article you will find information about the errors that can occur when using the Catenda Desktop Connector.

This article contains information about the following topics:

Server project location empty

In order to synchronize your local files to a project you have to have at least one folder in the documents section of the project on Catenda Hub.

Incorrect folder location

Document names can be limited with a naming convention in Catenda.

Folders cannot be limited.

Without the use of a naming convention documents with any name can be uploaded.

In this case Catenda might not have been able to register the file extension of the document.

Folders with any name can be created.

It can therefore be that the Desktop Connector runs into problems with characters in names that are reserved for Windows functionality.

Typical problems arise with the following characters:

/ - Forward Slash

\ - Backward Slash

These characters are used in the file path hierarchy in Windows which causes the document to end up in the wrong place.

To find an extensive list of what is reserved in Windows see here:

Incorrect document or folder name

Document names can be limited with a naming convention in Catenda.

Folders cannot be limited.

Without the use of a naming convention documents with any name can be uploaded.

In this case Catenda might not have been able to register the file extension of the document.

Folders with any name can be created.

It can therefore be that the Desktop Connector runs into problems with characters in names that are reserved for Windows functionality.

Typical problems arise with the following characters:

. - Period

Since folders and files ending in a period are not allowed in Windows the period at the end of the folder or file is removed in the document that is created from a download task.

When uploading the period is removed in the process of finding the right folder to upload to so the downloaded document will end up in the right place when synchronizing two ways.

Document already exists

If all documents have already been uploaded when starting an upload task the following error will appear:

Document already exists (code: 25)

Not all folders have been downloaded

In the task itself the following can be seen:

Not all folders have been downloaded, click to view errors.

Local folder missing

The folder that is set for the local project location can no longer be available.

This can happen because the folder has been deleted or because the drive that that folder was on is no longer connected.

In this case the log file will give the following error:

Could not find a part of the path

Network path missing

When downloading from or uploading to a network drive that is no longer available the Desktop Connector will keep the task running until Windows has discovered that the path is no longer available.

In this case the log file will give the following error:

The network path was not found

If the network drive becomes available again before Windows has discovered that it is gone the task will continue.

Not-supported characters

Document names can be limited with a naming convention in Catenda.

Folders cannot be limited.

Without the use of a naming convention documents with any name can be uploaded.

In this case Catenda might not have been able to register the file extension of the document.

Folders with any name can be created.

It can therefore be that the Desktop Connector tries to create a file or folder with a character that is not allowed to be used in a path in Windows.

In this case the log file will give the following error:

The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

Typical problems arise with the following characters:

< - less than

> - greater than

: - colon

" - double quote

| - vertical bar or pipe

? - question mark

* - asterisk

To find an extensive list of what is reserved in Windows see here:

Latest revision withdrawn

The latest revision for one of the documents has been withdrawn.

In this case there is no error message in the log file.

Simultanious synchronisation

In order for the Desktop Connector to be able to extract data from a document to upload or update a document with downloaded data it needs access to the document.

If the document is in use by another process it cannot access the document.


If the document is in use the following error can be seen:

The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\...' because it is being used by another process.

Processes that can have files in use can include:

A different task from the Desktop Connector itself

File synchronisation services like Dropbox, Onedrive or Google Drive

Other CDE synchronization tools.

Programs that have the file open for editing.

If the document is in use the task will stop and not continue if it cannot access one of the files.

If multiple tasks have been scheduled it will try again at the next scheduled time.

Internet connection

If there is a problem with the internet connection the upload or download task will not automatically restart and will run again at the next scheduled time.

It can also manually be started by going to the task and clicking on the upload or download button.

No connection

If there is no internet connection available when starting an upload or download task the following error will appear in the upload or download task.

No such host is known

Connection lost while starting task

If the connection to the internet was lost or timed out when trying to connect to the Catenda servers, the following error is displayed:

The SSL connection could not be established

Connection to Catenda lost

When a task is started a connection is made with the preferred internet connection method. For example, if you are both connected with a wired connection and via WiFi the wired connection is often preferred.

If you were only connected via WiFi when task was started and connected to a wired connection sometime during the task the connector will not switch and keep using the initial connection.

Internet connection no longer available without fallback

If there was only one connection available when the task began or if there were no connection available at all (E.G. Flight mode) the following errror can appear.

An error occurred while sending the request.

Internet connection no longer available with fallback

If there were multiple connections available when the task began and the connection that was in use was lost the connector will attemt to switch to one of the other available connections. During this switching the following error can appear:

Error while copying content to a stream

Connection to Catenda

Depending on the speed of the connection on both the up/download side or on the Catenda side it can take shorter or longer to upload files.

If the transfer has taken too long it will time out and the following error will appear:

A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond. (api.bimsync.com:443)

Please contact support in this situation.

There is a Beta version available per request that can help with this.

This device is currently in use

While downloading from or uplaoding to an external harddrive Windows will give an error saying that the device is currently in use if it is attempted to be disconnected.

Folder permissions

For folders that are on drive where Windows is installed the right folder permissions are required.
Right click the folder you are trying to download to and allow the right permissions.


In this case the log file will give the following error:


Access to the path '<Selected local folder path> subfolder <Path within local folder>' is denied

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