# Unknown resource - xlsx file. Have tried adding to Additional Resources

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448>\
**Category:** Online experiments\
**Tags:** online, resources, pavlovia\
**Created:** [October 16, 2021, 4:00pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448 "2021-10-16T16:00:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![J\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@J\_G](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/J_G)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 4:00pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/1 "2021-10-16T16:00:25Z")

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URL of experiment:  
[https://run.pavlovia.org/jane.garrison/test3/html/?\_\_pilotToken=c74d97b01eae257e44aa9d5bade97baf&\_\_oauthToken=e6311a6273fac6630d0fcbcfa8308b64bab9703f383662209b74d20de5dd5a91](https://run.pavlovia.org/jane.garrison/test3/html/? __pilotToken=c74d97b01eae257e44aa9d5bade97baf&__ oauthToken=e6311a6273fac6630d0fcbcfa8308b64bab9703f383662209b74d20de5dd5a91)  
(If this link does not work then please can you give me instructions on how to make it “public”?)

Description of the problem:  
I am getting the (seemingly common) error of “unknown resource”:

```auto
Unfortunately we encountered the following error:

when importing condition: Stimuli Sheets Auditory/APracticeStudy.xlsx
when getting the value of resource: Stimuli Sheets Auditory/APracticeStudy.xlsx
unknown resource
Try to run the experiment again. If the error persists, contact the experiment designer.

```

This is a simple Builder project with no code

I have tried the suggestions that have been made elsewhere - ensuring no spelling errors, not confusing / and \, and entering the resource in the Experiment Settings / Online - Additional Resources section (I have also entered the paths to the .wav files that are referred to by the spreadsheet). I have tried using a different path with spaces replaced by \_ and still get the error

This experiment worked pre-pandemic. I recently updated Psychopy and now I consistently get the “unknown resource” error. I have tried restoring the old version of Psychopy from Time Machine, but still get the error

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/2 "2021-10-16T18:15:07Z")

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You may need to delete and recreate the online version to stop using the html folder.

> [@Online experiment "Unknown Resource" issue](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/online-experiment-unknown-resource-issue/6943/38):
>
> In 2020.1 PsychoPy created an html folder for index.html and the javascript files. It also copied resources to html/resources and loaded everything in that folder into memory at the start of the experiment. If you needed a resource that was only mentioned in code you could just copy it to html/resources to tell PsychoPy to load it. This was inefficient because it meant that most experiments had two copies of its image, sound and video files which could nearly double the disk space used. From …

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**Author:** ![J\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@J\_G](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/J_G)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 7:05am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/3 "2021-10-17T07:05:36Z")

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Thank you for the suggestion @wakecarter

Here’s what I did:

- shut down Psychopy
- copied the project folder
- deleted everything (including hidden files) apart from the .psyexp file and the associated resources it needs (.xlsx, .wav etc) in the existing folder structure
- started Psychopy and opened the new .psyexp
- sent the experiment to Runner
- ran the PsychoJS task in local debug mode - it failed. (First time no local server connection, subsequent I got shown a screen with the option of listing /lib)
- ran the PsychoJS task from Pavlovia - nothing happened
- went back to Builder and ran the study online (with Pavlovia). Got the “not piloting” error, so went to Pavlovia Dashboard and enabled Piloting and ran the Pilot on the new project
- got the same “unknown resource” error as before
- I went back to Builder and tried running locally again.I got the same “unknown resource” error as before

I am at a bit of a loss as to what to try next. Do you have any other suggestions?

I checked, and confirmed the Additional Resources contains all the .xlsx files and .wav files they refer to.

Here is the new project - [AV1 [PsychoPy]](https://run.pavlovia.org/jane.garrison/news17oct/html/? __pilotToken=8f14e45fceea167a5a36dedd4bea2543&__ oauthToken=e6311a6273fac6630d0fcbcfa8308b64bab9703f383662209b74d20de5dd5a91) in case that helps

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 7:16am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/4 "2021-10-17T07:16:08Z")

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This is an odd list of steps.

What I did a couple of days ago when faced with this issue was:

1. Downloaded existing data from Pavlovia.
2. Deleted the project from Pavlovia.
3. Closed PsychoPy.
4. Deleted all local files and folders from the experiment apart from the psyexp file and resources.
5. Opened the psyexp file in PsychoPy.
6. Checked that the output path in Experiment Settings was blank.
7. Pressed the sync icon to create a new project online.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![J\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@J\_G](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/J_G)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 7:30am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/5 "2021-10-17T07:30:26Z")

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Many thanks, That worked.

I wonder if the critical step was #6 - the output path had “html” in it, and was about the only thing that I hadn’t tried changing to date.

Thanks again for your help.

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**Author:** ![mario.reutter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/mario.reutter/32/5750_2.png) [@mario.reutter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/mario.reutter)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/6 "2021-11-20T12:05:15Z")

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> [@wakecarter](#):
>
> 1. Checked that the output path in Experiment Settings was blank.

It seems to have to do specifically with this part of the solution. I used to like the tidyness of having the HTML exports in a subfolder and in Oct 2020 this was no problem for Pavlovia yet.  
If the output path is empty, no additional folder “resources” will be created by PsychoPy. Apparently, Pavlovia doesn’t look for the resources in the resources subfolder anymore?

Anyway, thanks for the solution!

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/7 "2021-11-20T12:44:26Z")

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You could put your resources in a folder. There are only 3 files created for online so it’s not too untidy in the root.

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**Author:** ![Edimilson\_Dos\_Santos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/edimilson_dos_santos/32/15235_2.png) [@Edimilson\_Dos\_Santos](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Edimilson_Dos_Santos)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/8 "2022-06-22T14:45:57Z")

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Hello,

I’m having the exact same problem mentioned in the thread, I followed all the tips and still pavlovia can’t find my experiment’s xlsx files.

I’ve tried countless times to delete the files and make new synchronizations, I even recreated the entire experiment through the builder, but nothing solves it.

Do you have any other tips to resolve this issue?

This is my experiment: [Sign in · GitLab](https://gitlab.pavlovia.org/RuiMJr/instagram_experiment_v2.git)

[https://run.pavlovia.org/RuiMJr/instagram\_experiment\_v2/html](https://run.pavlovia.org/RuiMJr/instagram_experiment_v2/html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/9 "2022-06-22T20:46:59Z")

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Have you recreated it without an html folder?

> [@"Unknown Resource" online, but works fine offline?](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-online-but-works-fine-offline/25793/10):
>
> I have a few minutes to write a reply now. I have one experiment still using the html folder where I have set “Use PsychoPy Version” to 2020.2.3 in Experiment Settings. For another experiment what I did was: Close the experiment in Builder. Download any existing data from Pavlovia. Delete the repository from Pavlovia. Delete the local .git folder. Delete the local html folder (after removing any files than only exist in it). Delete other unnecessary local files. Open the experiment in Builde…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Edimilson\_Dos\_Santos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/edimilson_dos_santos/32/15235_2.png) [@Edimilson\_Dos\_Santos](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Edimilson_Dos_Santos)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/10 "2022-07-08T17:20:23Z")

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None of the suggestions worked. My solution was to recreate the experiment from scratch using a more up-to-date version of Psychopy.

The components and settings were exactly the same as the previous ones, the only difference is that one was built on the 2020.1 version and the other on the 2022.2 version.

But thank you very much for your suggestion.

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**Author:** ![stephanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@stephanie](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/stephanie)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2022, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/11 "2022-07-08T20:30:54Z")

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For step #4, what resource files do I need to keep?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 10:48am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/unknown-resource-xlsx-file-have-tried-adding-to-additional-resources/25448/12 "2022-07-11T10:48:03Z")

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You need to keep files that you created, i.e the psyexp file, spreadsheets, images, audio files and video files. It’s probably safer to copy them to a clean folder if you aren’t sure, since then you can still access the old files if you forget one, and you won’t accidentally keep the hidden .git folder.