AEM asset share link failures from missing permissions, share settings, or local environment issues
Users can’t access, generate, or download assets shared through an AEM share link or Brand Portal, and they see missing Share buttons, Failed to download errors, empty 0 KB files, or unresponsive Download buttons. The cause is one of a few confirmed patterns: missing or changed permissions, Brand Portal settings that disable original-file downloads, duplicate Adobe identity profiles, custom UI overlays, or a local browser or machine problem. Correcting permissions, enabling the right Brand Portal download setting, removing duplicate profiles, and regenerating the link restore sharing. Validating permissions and testing a fresh link resolves the failure.
Description description
Environments:
- Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service
- Adobe Experience Manager Assets Essentials
- Adobe Experience Manager 6.5
- AEM Brand Portal
- AEM Assets share links and collections
Issue/Symptoms:
- Users see the error Failed to download when downloading assets through a share link.
- The Download button does nothing when clicked in Assets Essentials.
- Brand Portal users can’t see the Share or Share Link option.
- Shared-link downloads produce empty 0 KB files.
- The Collections share link doesn’t work or shows console errors.
Root cause:
Share link failures trace to one of five patterns: permissions that are missing or changed and block sharing or downloading; Brand Portal settings that disable original-file downloads; duplicate Adobe identity profiles that create permission mismatches; custom UI overlays that interfere with the share link logic; or a local environment or browser problem that stops the download action from running.
How to confirm
- Determine the scope. Ask the affected user to reproduce the issue, then have a second user with the same permissions try the same action. If neither user sees the Share, Share Link, or Download option, the cause is permissions rather than a single account, so continue to the resolution steps.
- Isolate local problems. Have the user test in another browser, in an incognito window, and on a different machine. If the Download button responds on an alternate machine, the failure is local to the original environment.
Resolution resolution
Follow these steps to resolve the issue:
- Validate and correct the permissions on the folder or collection: read for viewing, read and download for downloading, and share permissions for link sharing. After updating, confirm the user sees the Share, Share Link, or Download button.
- In Brand Portal, enable Allow download of the original file and confirm the collection-level share permissions, then have the user download a test asset from the shared link.
- In the Admin Console, check whether the user exists under more than one identity type. Remove stale or inactive profiles, re-add the correct one, and have the user sign in through an incognito window using the Company Account identity.
- Remove whitespace from folder and collection names, since whitespace prevents sharing, and confirm the asset is within the download file-size limit (the AEM as a Cloud Service default is 100 MB). Re-share the link and test.
- For AEM 6.5, open
Tools > Operations > Web Console > Day CQ Link Externalizerand confirm thelocal,author, andpublishdomains are set correctly, then generate a new share link and test. - Ask whether any custom UI overlays were added recently and temporarily disable overlays that affect the asset share UI. If the share button reappears and works, an overlay was the cause.
- Create a new share link, or regenerate it if the asset path changed, since moving a shared asset to a different location breaks its link. Load the link and test the download.
Validation
- Confirm the user sees the expected Share, Share Link, or Download button and completes the intended action.
- Download from the shared link as both the sharer and an external user to confirm no permission regression occurred.
If the issue persists
Contact Adobe Support with the reproduction steps, the affected user emails, example asset paths, a screenshot of the missing buttons or errors, confirmation of the browsers and machines tested, and details of any recent permission or configuration changes.