Onlyoffice file changes in the OC public link do not appear after the file is saved

[MonolithProjects]

Scenario:

1. Owner shares a docx file from the OwnCloud via Public Link (permissions here are not important)
2. Owner edit the docx file on OC OnlyOffice plugin and click "Save". Keeps the file open in his/her internet browser.
3. Public Link user opens the link to the file, but can not see the changes done in the step no. 2.
4. Owner closes the session (closes the OC or goes to a different location)
5. Public Link user refreshes the browser and can see the changes in docx file.

Additional info: No matter how long the Public Link user will wait and refreshing the browser, the changes will appear only after the Owner leave/close the file in OC.

OnlyOffice Document Server version: 8.1.3
OnlyOffice OC App: 9.3.1
OwnCloud version: 10.15.0.2

[jkosinski]

Thanks for reporting this, I confirm this issue is happening.

[SergeyKorneyev]

The only way to see real-time changes to the document from a viewing session is the live viewer functionality (https://api.onlyoffice.com/docs/docs-api/get-started/how-it-works/viewing/) which is only available for users that are signed in to ownCloud. Anonymous (external) users that open the document with view-only permissions via a public link can only access the regular viewing mode. It's designed this way since the number of live view connections is determined by the license and regular viewing connections are unlimited.
A regular viewing session can only display the latest version of the document that had beed created before the active viewing session was started. In this scenario, this means that it will not display any intermediate versions that have been created with force saving (pressing the Save button inside the editor without terminating the editing session), so the behavior you describe is expected.

We've also checked the same scenario using a public link with editing permissions and did not notice any issues: the anonymous user can see any changes made by the authorized user since they are in the same editing session.

[jkosinski]

Thanks for checking that. However, even if this is expected it is rather dangerous because users don't know that. What happened in my case was: we were writing a grant application with collaborators. Four days before the grant deadline, I made several changes in track changes in MS Word and shared them with the collaborators through OwnCloud using the scenario in the original post. The collaborators downloaded the file, did not realize my changes were missing, and thus continued editing the older version. They sent it back two days before the deadline, and then I spent a day consolidating the two diverged versions. Last day, we submitted the grant in a rush, and I didn't critically look at the latest version because I was on holiday, and there was a bomb threat emergency on my ferry between Malta and Gozo (really!).

Maybe a compromise solution would be to show the latest version just without track changes, or disallow sharing like this with track changes, or display some large flashy warning "This version contains hidden track changes. Please ask the author to share in ... way".

PS. We did not get the grant, so (half-joking!) one could argue these contributed to missing out on the chance to win 200K EUR because we would have had more time to focus on critically revising the grant in the last days ;-) Another lesson: never leave grant writing for the last minute ;-)