In August 2025, Autodesk informed the account administrator of Autodesk Docs about the following behavior change when uploading files through Desktop Connector: files uploaded to Docs via Desktop Connector will no longer be automatically translated for viewing. The user will need to manually initiate the translation process by selecting an individual file or a group of files in either the Desktop Connector or Docs user interface (UI). Autodesk is releasing this update in phases, starting in early September. Deployment is anticipated to be completed in the span of a few months.
For information about the behavior change in the UI, please refer to the product help documentation:
- Autodesk Docs: Changes to Viewing Files Uploaded by Desktop Connector FAQ
- Autodesk Desktop Connector: Release Notes July 31, 2025 (v16.16.0.2792)
How does this affect a developer application?
Currently, there is no API to trigger a translation of files uploaded through Desktop Connector. Model Derivative’s translation job call is blocked in Docs. If your application depends on the viewable and metadata, your application will not be able to obtain that information for further processing. We have the following wish logged:
- CDX-27988: “API wish: provide the API to allow on-demand translation of files in Docs that are not automatically translated”
The workaround is that the end user manually triggers the translation through the UI, or upload files via other methods, such as uploading directly from Docs UI or through API.
While traversing projects folders and contents using Data Management API, you can tell if a given file is not automatically translated by checking the processState. If there is no automatic translation, the value of processState will be “PROCESSING_SUSPENDED”:
included.attributes.extension.data.processState = "PROCESSING_SUSPENDED"Let us know if your application requires a programmatic way to trigger the translation. This will help us assess the impact of this change and the prioritization of future work.