Troubleshooting your Click & Drop Desktop integration

Important notice - we are planning to deprecate the Royal Mail Print Assist app on September 30th 2024. All automatic printing functionality is moving to our new Auto Print feature within the Click & Drop Desktop app. Please click here for more information: Auto Print

Almost all commonly encountered problems with Click & Drop Desktop are explained in this guide. Please carefully read the section that best describes the problem you have encountered.

The current version of Click & Drop Desktop is 2.5.6 If you have encountered an issue and you are running an older version of the app, please fully close and restart the app and it will automatically update to the newest version.

Important note: If you wish to contact our support team, we can troubleshoot issues more quickly if you provide us with a copy of your Desktop log text files. You can find these text files on the machine where the Click & Drop Desktop app is installed:

Windows users: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Click & Drop™ Desktop\logs

Mac users: ~/Library/Application Support/Click & Drop™ Desktop/logs

Minimum system requirements

Minimum system requirements In order to use Click & Drop Desktop, you must use a computer or device running either:

Microsoft Windows 10 64 bit or above
macOS 10.10 or above

Important notes:

The newest version of Click & Drop Desktop has different system requirements to previous versions.
Older versions of Windows, such as Windows 7/8/8.1 are no longer supported by Microsoft, and so we are unable to develop for them.
If you cannot upgrade to a supported version of Windows, our support team can give you a link to a previous version as a temporary measure. We advise you to update the operating systems you use as soon as possible to ensure you can continue using future versions of Click & Drop Desktop.

1. What do I do if my files are not importing successfully?

If your file is not importing successfully, please check the following:

1. Check your internet connection is stable, and check that the machine or device running Click & Drop Desktop hasn't been logged out, hasn't gone to sleep, or isn't currently in standby mode.

2. Check your spreadsheet columns have been successfully mapped, or haven't changed.

3. Does the data in your spreadsheet match Click & Drop's order import field specifications?

4. Is your 'Watch' folder on a network drive or location? If so, consider enabling 'Polling mode' in your Click & Drop Desktop advanced settings. Please be aware that polling mode can cause imports to be duplicated in some scenarios.

5. If one or more of your files is 'stuck' and has not imported, please try closing the app down and then restarting. This action will also force any automatic updates that may be due.

6. By going to Click & Drop within a web browser, and navigating to Orders > Import > Order import history, you can see whether or not your most recent imports have been successful or not.

7. Are your 'Results', 'Processed', or 'Archive' folders full of files? We recommend clearing these out periodically to help the app run smoothly.

We do not recommend you delete and recreate your Click & Drop Desktop integration at this stage as this can potentially cause other issues.

2. None of my labels are printing.

Click & Drop Desktop only handles the importing of files. The printing of labels is done by either manually printing your labels from within Click & Drop itself, or are produced automatically via our printing app, Royal Mail Print Assist.

1. Check that your files are importing correctly. You can check this by going to Click & Drop within a web browser, and navigating to Orders > Import > Order import history, or by checking if there are any .PDF files in your 'Results' folders. If you have multiple workstations set up, you can expect to see multiple 'Results' folders.

2. If you use Royal Mail Print Assist, please see these troubleshooting steps: Troubleshooting Royal Mail Print Assist.

3. If you are using any 3rd party order management software to print your labels instead of Royal Mail Print Assist, please contact them first.

Please note: If your file is importing but a label is not being generated, or if it is printing to the wrong printer, please check that your file is being placed in the correct directory.

If you do not have multiple workstations set up, please check your files are being placed in the selected 'Watch' folder.

If you do have multiple workstations set up, please check your files are being placed in the correct workstation 'Watch' folder. Files placed directly in the watch folder will print using the default workstation printer, or if no default workstation is selected, labels will not print at all.

3. One or more of my workstations is not producing labels

If one or more of your workstations is not producing labels when you have dropped a file into it, please check the following:

1. You have configured the workstation in your Click & Drop Desktop integration.

2. Your Enable automatic printing setting is switched on.

3. You are logged into the Click & Drop Desktop application on the workstation (or server location the workstation connects to).

4. Your printer is not switched off or is not producing errors.

5. You have installed Click & Drop Desktop and Royal Mail Print Assist on each of your workstations (or server location the workstation connects to).

6. Check that the installed applications are up to date. You can force an automatic update by closing and then restarting the application.

7. Check that each of your installed applications has the same Watch folder selected. Please do not select an individual workstation folder as your Watch folder.

8. Check that you do not have any firewalls, security settings, or user permissions that are preventing communications between the Click & Drop Desktop app, the Print Assist app, and your own network. If you need to make any changes to your allowed IP addresses or URLs, please check Click & Drop IP addresses and URLs for security settings.

Please note: If your file is importing but a label is not being generated, or if it is printing to the wrong printer, please check that your file is being placed in the correct directory.

If you do not have multiple workstations set up, please check your files are being placed in the selected 'Watch' folder.

4. I am encountering issues while using a network drive

Issues on network drives can occur due to 'file update events' not triggering. If you attempt to connect to a network drive using Click & Drop Desktop, please ensure you enable the advanced polling option in the settings section. The following common issues that can occur on network setups:

1. Permission issues - check your user has correct access to the drive.

2. Files stuck in the watch folder

3. Extended import times

We recommend contacting your network administrator if you are affected by any of the above issues.

5. Can I create a second Click & Drop Desktop integration?

You can only have one Click & Drop integration active. If you have multiple trading names, you will need to map a 'Trading names' column to allow you to specify different return addresses per order.

If you have multiple sites and this is not possible, please consider setting up more than one Click & Drop account, each with its own instance of Click & Drop Desktop operating on different machines.

6. My results file is empty

Results files are generated at the Postage applied state and can be found in the results folder within your Desktop watch folder. Results files can only contain a tracking number if the order imported contains all the relevant data for generating tracking numbers:
1. You must include a minimum of Product weight, Package size, and Service code in your import file. Some international destinations require customs information to be provided in addition to the above.

2. The service and packaging combination you used supports tracking.

3. You must have either:

a) Royal Mail Print Assist configured and working correctly and the 'Print labels automatically' Click & Drop Desktop integration setting switched on

b) 'Save a copy of labels to watch folder' Click & Drop Desktop integration setting switched on.

7. I'm generating duplicate labels

Click & Drop Desktop is specifically built to process imported files only once. If you are seeing duplicated orders or labels in Click & Drop, this is likely due to one of the following:

1. If you are running Click & Drop desktop on a network drive in conjunction with multiple workstations, try running only one version of the Click & Drop Desktop app instead of one per workstation.

2. Check that you do not have multiple instances of the Click & Drop Desktop app looking at the same Watch folder.

3. Check you have not installed Royal Mail Print Assist as a windows service.

4. If you use any order management software or any automated method of dropping files into the watch directory, please check that the file is not being dropped in twice. This can occur if files are created in the Watch folder and then written to or edited later. If your order management system creates spreadsheets in the Watch folder and writes to them as part of an automated process it, we recommend this part be done in a location away from the Watch folder, and then only moved into the Watch folder once any writing or editing is complete.

5. If you are running Click & Drop Desktop on a shared server, and you have Polling mode switched ON in your app settings.

8. My labels are coming out of the wrong printer

If your label is sent to a printer that you did not expect, please check the following:

1. Check you have chosen the correct printers in your Royal Mail Print Assist or Click & Drop Desktop workstation settings.

2. If you have multiple printers with the same name, you may need to rename them to make this process easier.

3. If you have a default workstation selected, and you drop your spreadsheet into the watch directory and not an individual subfolder, then the label will print from the printer specified in the default workstation.

9. My application is displaying a “No internet connection” error.

If you are experiencing this issue, it is likely that you have a firewall or other internet security software that is denying access to the app. You may need to add the app to your 'allowed list', or whitelist our URLs and/or IP addresses. Please see step 14 below.

10. Can Click & Drop Desktop produce CN22/CN23 documents?

If you have checked the 'Generate customs declaration with Orders' option in your Label format settings page, then CN22 or CN23 documents will automatically be produced for any international orders imported where customs declarations are required.

The .PDF files will be saved to your results folder.

11. Click & Drop Desktop is not communicating with workstations across my network.

Click & Drop Desktop is fully compatible with servers and networks running Microsoft Windows 10 or above. Please ensure that you only run one version of Click & Drop Desktop. If all of your machines connect to the same server, you do not need to install Click & Drop Desktop on each separate machine.

Please ensure that the single machine on which Click & Drop Desktop is installed is kept online during operation. If you use Royal Mail Print Assist, you will need to ensure this is installed on every workstation you would like to print from.

If your issue still persists after checking the above, please contact our support team.

12. My workstation folders contain other workstation folders

If you find your folder structure seems incorrect, please check that each instance of Click & Drop Desktop is looking at the Watch folder - and not an individual subfolder.
In these circumstances, we recommend deleting the workstation folders and setting up your workstations again.

Please do not create your own subfolders - Click & Drop Desktop will create them automatically once your workstations are correctly configured.

13. The app is displaying an 'Unable to connect to server' error

If you see this error, it means that your app is unable to connect to Click & Drop via the internet. Please check that any firewalls, anti-malware, or anti-virus software are not preventing the app from connecting to the internet. Additionally, if you connect to the internet via a network, please ensure your network settings are not blocking outgoing traffic. You may need to whitelist our URLs and/or IP addresses in order to do this. Please see step 14 below.

14. I need to whitelist your IP addresses and URLs for my security settings

Depending on your firewalls and/or security settings, you may need to whitelist IP addresses or URLs used by Click & Drop and its associated technologies in order for us to import and process your orders.

For a full list of URLs and IP addresses, please see the following guide: Click & Drop IP addresses and URLs for security settings

15. My Desktop app is running slowly

Often, the speed at which the app can process files and produce labels can be affected by various factors, such as:

The processing speeds of the computer or network the app is running on
The available storage and memory of the computer or network the app is running on
The user permissions of the logged in user on your computer or network, and any restrictions that may be in place
The presence of any Firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs) that have an effect on the speeds
The strength and stability of your internet connection

There are some tips that have been been shown to improve speeds:

1. If the folders that Click & Drop Desktop reads from, or writes too are very full, there can be a delay in processing. It is good practise to clear the 'Processed' and 'Results' folders out periodically, once you have used the contents as required.

2. Some user settings can restrict the users of a computer or network to certain processing speeds or memory allocations. Likewise, some firewalls, VPNs, or other running apps can demand a sizeable amount of a computer's available memory or CPU usage. You may need to optimise the machine running Click & Drop Desktop.

3. If the computer running Click & Drop Desktop goes into sleep mode or standby, this can break the connection between the app, and Click & Drop's servers.

4. We are making regular improvements to the app so that it self cleans, and removes any unwanted files. if you are not on the most recent version, closing then reopening the app should force an automatic upgrade.

5. While it may not always be practical to do so, it is often useful to have a dedicated machine to run the Click & Drop Desktop app. This tends to ensure a more stable and efficient connection.