---
title: When a file can't be read
description: What the orange note on a rule means, what still works, and the three ways out.
---

<span class="vy-eyebrow">Using Vythos</span>

# When a file can't be read

Sometimes Vythos checks a rule's document and can't get at it. The file was
binned, the sharing changed, the person who added it left. When that happens,
the rule gets an orange note saying so — on its own row, and counted at the top
of the Playbook so it isn't lost under a category tab.

## What still works

**The rule does.** It keeps the text it last read, and it keeps reaching your
team and their AI tools exactly as before. Nothing is withdrawn on the strength
of a file being missing — a missing file is more often a tidy-up than a
decision.

**What stops** is the following. Until Vythos can read the document again, the
rule won't change when the document does.

## What the note can say

| Note | What happened |
|---|---|
| *The file is in the bin in Google Drive.* | Someone deleted it. It's recoverable from the bin |
| *Vythos can't open that file with your Google account.* | Sharing changed, or it moved to a drive the connected account can't see |
| *Google Drive isn't connected.* | The source was disconnected. Reconnect it in Sources |
| *The Notion connection has expired.* | Reconnect Notion in Sources |
| *The person who added this file is no longer in the workspace…* | Rules are read with the access of whoever added them. Add the document again from your own account |
| *'…' isn't among your uploaded files.* | An uploaded document that is no longer there — upload it again under the same name |

A source that's simply slow, or briefly down, is **not** reported. Vythos only
writes a note for a lasting cause, because a warning that comes and goes is a
warning people learn to ignore.

## The three ways out

The note offers all three:

**Still needed?** Put the file back — restore it from the bin, re-share it, or
reconnect the source. The note clears by itself at the next check, within about
ten minutes. Nothing else to do.

**Replaced by another file?** Add the new document with **Add rule** and tick
that it replaces this one. The old rule retires with its history; the new
document takes over.

**Not a rule any more?** Retire it, straight from the note. See
[Retire a rule](/using-vythos/retire-a-rule).

## How long it stays

Until the cause is fixed. The note records when the trouble started, so the row
shows how long a rule has been out of touch with its document — "can't read
this rule's file (since 14 March)". A rule that has been adrift for weeks is
usually one to retire.

## Avoiding it

- **Keep rule documents in a shared drive** rather than one person's personal
  folder, so a departure doesn't take the file with it.
- **Add rules from an account that will still exist next year.** The rule is
  read with the access of whoever added it.
- **Don't reorganise by re-creating.** Moving and renaming are free; deleting
  and re-uploading makes a new file that no rule is following.