Work through these in order; the first two account for nearly every case.
1. Was the file marked visible to the client?
Open the client's profile, then Documents → Files. A file the client can see carries a blue Visible to client tag. No tag means the box Make this visible to the client in their portal was left unticked when it was uploaded, and the file is private to staff. It is not shown in the portal and cannot be reached there even with a direct link.
Upload it again with the box ticked. Files captured through an intake form (an insurance card photo, an ID) are visible to the client by default.
2. Is it the same client record?
The portal is tied to one client record: the one you granted access from. If the practice has two records for the same person, a file uploaded to the other one never reaches the portal. Check which record has Grant portal access used on it, and upload to that one.
3. Was the upload refused?
Chart uploads accept images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP), PDF, Word (.doc, .docx) and plain text, up to 15MB. Anything else is refused with Unsupported file type. Earlier versions of FrontDesk refused PDFs and Word files here with "File type not allowed"; that is fixed, so a file that failed before can be uploaded now.
4. Was the portal page already open?
If the client had Documents open in another window while you uploaded, the list refreshes when they come back to that window. A page reload does the same.
5. What View and Download do
In the portal each shared file has View and, behind More, Download.
- View shows the file in place: an image, or a PDF or text file, in a large dialog. On a phone a PDF opens in its own tab instead, because embedded PDFs are unreliable there.
- Download saves the file under its own name. The page stays where it is; nothing opens in a new tab.
- A Word file cannot be shown in the browser, so its row has only Download.
If View shows a blank pane for a PDF on a desktop while images work, use Download or contact support; that is a storage setting rather than the client's device.
Still stuck?
Contact support with the client's name and the file name. Every portal view and download is in the audit trail, so support can see whether the client reached the file.