Fixing Broken Links

There are various ways in which you can fix broken links. The method to use may depend on why a link is broken.  

• For any broken link, if relevant, you can change the link URL and you can do this directly in Help Center Manager. Refer to Checking and Changing Links.
• For a link to a "Draft" article, you can open the linked article directly from Help Center Manager and, provided you are signed in, you can then edit and publish the article in Zendesk. 
• For a link to an "Archived" article, you will either need to locate the article in the Archived view in Zendesk Help Center and restore it, or change the link to a published article. 
• For a link to a "Deleted" article, you will need to change the link to a published article.
• For a link to something that is a valid URL but, for example, needs authorization to access it, you can use Mark as Valid so it is no longer included as a link that needs to be corrected. Refer below to Marking a Broken Link as Valid.
• Where a link is to an external site, the broken link might be due to a temporary issue with that website. 
• If you are seeing Links that show as Valid when they are broken, or showing as not Valid when they are correct, run a Full Sync to update the data and then check again. Refer to Running the Full Sync in Syncing the Zendesk Data to Help Center Manager.

If none of these seem to apply, please contact support with the link you’re referring to, and we will investigate further.

In this Article
Fixing the Link in Help Center Manager
Opening a Draft Article from Help Center Manager and Publishing it in Zendesk
Fixing a Link to an Archived or Deleted Article
Opening the Article and Fixing the Links in Zendesk Help Center
Marking a Broken Link as Valid

Fixing the Link in Help Center Manager

You can change links directly in Help Center Manager. This is useful if you have a new article that replaces an article that has been linked to. 

• From the Links page, you can display the Links pane for a link, then use Change Link to change the URL of the link(s).
  
  The advantage of using Change Link is the Links pane shows all the articles in which the link is included, and Change Link changes all the links at the one time. Refer to Checking and Changing Links and to Displaying Details about the Links in the Link Pane in Links Page.
  
  
• You can also open and Edit the article that holds the link and change the link directly in Help Center Manager. Refer to Editing an Article using the Help Center Manager Editor.

Opening a Draft Article from Help Center Manager and Publishing it in Zendesk

Where the link is not Valid because it links to a "Draft" article, it is likely the linked article was a published article when the link was added, but has subsequently been unpublished so the link is no longer valid.

1. Open the linked article directly from Help Center Manager. On the Links page you can click the hypertext link in the Link Title column.
   
   
   Or
   From the Link pane, click the Open icon under the article title at the top of the pane.
   
   
2. If you are not already signed in to the Zendesk Helpdesk, you are prompted to Sign In.
3. Edit the Draft article.
4. Publish the article in Zendesk. 

Fixing a Link to an Archived or Deleted Article

Where the broken link is to an article that has been "Archived" or "Deleted" in Zendesk, the Links page shows the Link URL, but does not show the article Title.

• If the article was archived by mistake, locate the article in the Archived view in Zendesk Help Center and restore it. When you have synced the change to Help Center Manager it will then show as valid.
  
  
• If the article was correctly archived, or it has been deleted, you will need to change the link to a published article. You can do this in Help Center Manager (refer to Checking and Changing Links), or fix the link in Zendesk Help Center.

Opening the Article and Fixing the Links in Zendesk Help Center

You can fix the Links, or the Link Text, in Zendesk Help Center. Where a link has been added to more than article this would need to be fixed for each article, and you can use Help Center Manager to locate all the articles in which the link has been added.

1. In the Link pane, click the Article Title or the Open icon next to the Article Title to open that article in Zendesk.
   
   
2. Fix the link in Zendesk Help Center.
3. Where the link is in more than article, select each in turn from the Link pane and make the changes.  

Marking a Broken Link as Valid

Where the link is to a valid site but needs authorization to access it, this also shows as not Valid. This may also be to a link that points to a page not available on the internet (such as a link pointing to your own desktop).

You can mark any of these as valid so they are no longer included as a link that needs to be corrected.

1. Click anywhere on the row except on the Link Title.
2. This opens the Link pane on the right-hand side.
   
   Where the Link is not Valid, the Link pane includes the Mark as Valid button.
   
   
   You can use this for example, if the link to something that is a valid URL but needs authorization to access it. This will mark the link as valid so it is no longer included as a link that needs to be corrected.
   When a broken Link has been marked as Valid, it shows Link was marked as valid at the top of the Link pane.
   
   You can unmark this by clicking Unmark as Valid.