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Open and link tracking problems with Microsoft defender

  • January 15, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 871 views
M

We are offering PDF downloads to our website visitors, they fill out a form, that triggers an automation, and the automation sends them an email with a link to the PDF.

That has worked fine for years, but now it seems that Microsoft Defender has been updated - so if the user is on a computer with Microsoft Defender, the PDF link gets flagged as dangerous, after a little research I found out that if I turn off the link tracking on the email, it is approved by Microsoft Defender.

Turning tracking off is a quick fix, but it removes options for reminder emails and other things in the automation.

Is ActiveCampaign aware of this problem?

Does anyone have experience with fixing this problem?

    6 replies

    C

    We are having this issue as well with Microsoft business recipients and tracking links generated by ActiveCampaign. We opened support tickets yesterday morning, but have not heard back yet.

    M
    • miltek
    • Author
    • January 15, 2025

    Thanks for your input - this is a huge problem for everyone, and you don’t see it unless you are on a Microsoft business platform with Defender…

    A

    I just escalated this to our product team. I’ll follow up shortly! In the meantime, have you opened a ticket so our team can look into your account more specifically? If so, please DM me the ticket number.

    A

    UPDATE: Engineers are investigating reports that tracked links are being incorrectly flagged as malicious by Office 365 Defender.

    Deliverability specialists are online working to resolve the issue.

    You can follow along here for the most recent updates: https://status.activecampaign.com/

      S

      As a workaround until a proper solution is found, if you own the website that is hosting the PDF could you track the user’s arrival at that page instead of the click on the email link that took them there?

      M
      • miltek
      • Author
      • January 21, 2025

      that still wouldn’t make the automation work, at least it would take a lot of work with over 700 automation, but luckily ActiveCampaign have fixed the issue now.

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