Microsoft® File Transfer Manager

Troubleshooting Tips/ Frequently Asked Questions

Try to launch the FTM client that may exist on your computer. Following are the ways in which you can launch FTM:
• Check if you have a desktop shortcut for FTM. If yes, you can click it to launch.
• Check if you have FTM in your start menu.� If yes, you can click it to launch.
• If you are using Internet Explorer, you may already have FTM installed on your machine automatically from your earlier visits to a Microsoft Program�s web site.� Follow the below steps to verify this and launch:
• Open a command window (Start, Run and type cmd or command depending on version of Windows)
• Change Directory to %SystemRoot%\Downloaded Program Files\
• Type TransferMgr.exe <enter>

Once launched, you can check the version of FTM by viewing the control menu from upper left corner of the window and selecting the "About" option.

Compare this version with the current version number mentioned on install page.

If you don't use Internet Explorer then you can install FTM from here.
If you use Internet Explorer then in most cases when you perform any download or upload from a Microsoft program site (that uses FTM for file transfers), the current version of FTM will be automatically installed on your computer after you accept the prompt. However in some instances, such automatic installs may not succeed if there is any trouble with ActiveX Control download and install. In such circumstances, you can install FTM from here.

Microsoft Windows Installer engine must be present on your computer before a Windows Installer (.msi) package can be installed. Windows Installer is not included in Microsoft Windows 98 SE or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0.
Resolution: To run Windows Installer packages on these operating systems, you must first install the Windows Installer engine. You can obtain the Windows Installer engine from here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;292539

This behavior can occur if the Windows Installer files are mismatched because of an attempted update of the Windows Installer.
Resolution: Please try the steps outlined in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324638/en-us. If it does not address your issue, then please contact support for the Microsoft program where you are doing the file transfers.

In most cases this is due to some issues with ActiveX Controls/Scripting.
Resolution: If you see an information bar at the top of Internet Explorer that says "This site might require the following ActiveX control..." then the Microsoft Program web site from where you had initiated the transfer was trying to install new FTM client on your computer and the installation was blocked. You can do one of the following:
• Dismiss the error dialog. Right click on the information bar and choose to install ActiveX control. Initiate the transfer again from the Microsoft Program web site.
• Alternatively, you can install FTM client from here and then initiate the transfer again from the Microsoft Program�s web site.

If you do not see an information bar, then the issue could have occurred due to your computer or network configured to block ActiveX controls.
You can resolve this by first checking whether you already have the current version of FTM client. The procedure is explained here.
If you don't have current version of FTM client then you can install it from here and try initiating the transfer again from the Microsoft Program�s web site.
If neither of the above addresses the problem then your computer or network may have been configured to block ActiveX scripting. Currently, initiating transfers from Internet Explorer requires ActiveX scripting to be enabled. You can determine if this the cause through following steps:
• Check the security setting of Internet Explorer and whether it is blocking ActiveX scripting.
• If you are using a personal firewall or Internet security product then verify whether it has been configured to block ActiveX scripting.
• Verify with your network administrator whether ActiveX scripting has been disabled in your network.

If ActiveX scripting is disabled in your environment then enabling it for signed ActiveX controls may fix the issue. If you do not want to enable it or enabling it does not fix the issue then contact support for the Microsoft program�s web site where you saw this error.

Yes. You can launch FTM from a desktop shortcut. Check if you already have such a shortcut on your desktop. If not you can create it by using Application Startup checkbox in FTM Options dialog's General tab.
If you had installed FTM using Windows Installer then you can also launch it from start menu.

Transfers

This could be due to proxy or firewall settings that do not allow FTM HTTP custom headers to pass through.
Resolution: In most circumstances, this issue can be resolved by enforcing HTTPS as the protocol for file transfers.
1. Launch FTM.
2. Click Options button.
3. Switch to the Connections tab.
4. Uncheck HTTP and verify HTTPS is checked under the Protocol available to transfer files section.

5. Click OK to save changes.

This error could occur when initiating new downloads if:
• The download location where files will be written on your machine either does not exist or is a mapped network share that has intermittent connectivity problems.
• Download location path is too long or contains invalid characters / words.
• File name is too long or has invalid characters.
Resolution:
• If you have specified a default download location in FTM Options dialog then make sure it points to an existing folder which is accessible (preferably on your local computer).
• If you are prompted to select a download location when initiating a new download, make sure you select an existing folder which is accessible (preferably on your local computer).
• Make sure the download location that you have chosen is not under a system folder or does not contain the name of a system folder.
• Make sure the download location path does not exceed 256 characters.
• If none of the above addresses your issue, then please contact support for the Microsoft program where you are doing the file transfers.

FTM transfer rate appears to be slow on my computer, why does this happen?

1. Verify with your network administrator for the network bandwidth available in your environment. While doing that you may also want to find out the capacity of Network Interface Card on your computer.
2. Note that the transfer rate displayed in FTM corresponds to the selected transfer in the Current Transfers window. If you have multiple active transfers at the same time, you may want to add up the transfer rate used by each active transfer to find out the total transfer rate.
Do you notice that the transfer rate is significantly lower than the available network bandwidth?
Resolution: There may be multiple reasons for it. A few are listed here:
When you are doing downloads, do you see any number/icon appear on the FTM status bar at the bottom right corner? If yes, the tool tips will provide you some hits about any constraints that may be exist at the time.
Another possible cause would be proxy servers that are in use within your environment. Since FTM makes use of the HTTP and HTTPS protocols for transfers, if a proxy server is configured within Internet Explorer then it will be used by the FTM. If the proxy server(s) used is experiencing performance issues or extreme load then the FTM transfer rate will be affected as well. Please plan the proxy server placement/configuration accordingly to prevent FTM clients from contacting overloaded or poor performing proxy servers.
If neither of the above addresses your issue, then please contact support for the Microsoft Program where you are doing the file transfers.

It is possible that the errors that FTM encountered persisted for a longer duration and therefore retries did not seem to work.
Resolution: You can try increasing Retry delay to 60 seconds using FTM Options and see if it addresses the problem.

If the file being uploaded is on a mapped network share, then a possible cause is that there was an issue with network connectivity and file was unavailable. Even after the network connectivity is restored, the error continues to show.

Resolution: Copy the file from network share to your local computer and try uploading the file. If the file is already on your local computer and you still get this error, then please contact support for the Microsoft program where you are doing the file transfers.

Miscellaneous

FTM does not currently support scheduling file transfers to automatically occur at a specific time.� However you can suspend a transfer and manually resume it at a time of your choice.

If you have installed FTM using the Windows Installer then use the following steps:
1. Go to Control Panel
2. Click Add or Remove Programs
3. Select Microsoft Transfer Manager and click Remove
4. When prompted to confirm choose Yes

If you are using Internet Explorer and FTM was automatically installed on your computer then use the following steps:
1. From within Internet Explorer click on "Tools" -> "Internet Options"
2. In the Temporary Internet Files section, click the "Settings" button
3. Click the "View Objects" button
4. In the explorer window, right-click the item "DLC Class" and choose Remove
5. In the pop-up window, click "Yes"
6. Close all the windows back to Internet Explorer
7. Open a command window
8. Change Directory to %SystemRoot%\Downloaded Program Files\
9. Delete the following FTM files by typing in Del <FTM file Names below> <enter>
   
     ftm_en-us.xml
     ftm_LanguageList.xml
     grTransferCtrl.dll
     grTransferMgr.dll
     TransferMgr.exe
     TransferMgr.cnt
     TransferMgr.hlp
10. Check for any folders titled: "Conflict.x" (where x is a number). If any exist, open them and check the files inside. If any are FTM files, then delete the entire folder
11. Close the command window