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Why do links to duplicated boards get crossed?

  • 12 March 2021
  • 4 replies
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K

I created a board, then duplicated it. I changed the name on the duplicated board. Both boards were to be used in separate Zoom meetings as public boards. When we were in the first meeting, I gave the link to 1 board. Half the participants ended up in the wrong board, even though I never gave them that link, nor did anyone else in the meeting/on the board have the other link. I did have both boards public at the time because there was going to be a time overlap between the Zoom sessions and I wanted to make sure that there would be a smooth transition.

This is now the second time this has occurred. The first time, we copied the board 4 times for 4 classes that were occurring on Zoom at the same time. Students ended up on each others’ boards. We assumed it was user error. But since it continues to occur, we think it must be an issue with Miro.

All the links appear different when we paste them into a document, but they still cross somehow. Any ideas?

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Best answer by Robert Johnson 12 March 2021, 21:12

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Robert Johnson
Userlevel 7
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@Kathleen Everling - I have never heard of this.

To help us all troubleshoot, I would suggest detailing your exact steps from the time you first create a board until you share a link(s) with your workshop participants.

This may help us (the forum) catch where things are going wrong, or help you uncover a human error, but at the very least will provide troubleshooting steps for Miro support should there in fact be a bug.

The below may seem like a lot of work, but again, I have never heard of this happening, so without knowing exactly what you are doing, there may be a lot of guessing/speculation (or someone less analytical than I will pick up on the issue right away :wink: ).

For example, record the following steps in a spreadsheet:

  1. Create a board, give it a name, and exit it.
  2. Capture the the name in one column and in the next two columns capture the board link/URL by
    1. copying it from the browser’s address bar; and
    2. copying it using the “copy board link” from the board’s Share settings
    3. and to be real thorough, if you ever do use this method, copy it from the board’s ellipsis (three-dots) menu from your Miro dashboard.
  3. Then, each time you duplicate the board, repeat steps 1 & 2.
  4. Now open your master board and add a sticky note with the text “MASTER BOARD”, so no other board has this.
  5. Then open a private/incognito browser window and start browsing to all boards except for the first entry in your spreadsheet, to see if you somehow end up on the master board.

You could then easily do a compare formula in the spreadsheet, row-by-row, to see if one of the links/URLs does not match, e.g., from step #2 above when you enter the board links in columns B, C, D, put the following formula in column E: “=B2=C2=D2 - if FALSE, then something doesn’t match and maybe there is a bug on Miro’s side.

Another consideration is how you are duplicating the board - if you do this from within the board itself, you will then be taken to the new board:

 

Visual Thinker | Volunteer Community Moderator
K
  1. I created the board.
  2. I duplicated the board by clicking on the name of the board. 
  1. I renamed the new board. No access by anyone.
  2. I made the original board editable by my team. We worked on the original board only. 
  3. I made the original board No access. I edited it. 
  4. I made the original board Comment Only - public. My team tested out a new items, then changed it to Edit - public. They did not share the link with anyone. 
  5. I made edits to duplicate board. Made the Duplicate Board public - Comment Only. 
  6. Shared the link to the Duplicate Board in the Zoom meeting. No other link was shared in this meeting. ½ participants went to Original Board and ½ to Duplicate board

 

The first time I assumed it was user error. We had almost 1000 people - 4 concurrent Zoom meetings with 4 identical boards.

  1. I created a Sandbox board.
  2. The Sandbox board was copied and used as the foundation of the Clean Board.
  3. The Sandbox board was then used to plan and then to train faculty.
  4. Two frames from the Clean Board were used to create templates that were then replicated 18 times each for a new board. Each of those 40 frames had an individual link to a Getting Started Frame in the board. This Clean Board was not to be used in the meetings. It was not shared with anyone. No one had access to it but me.
  5. Clean Board was duplicated 4 times and renamed with the name of the Zoom meeting Host. They were duplicated by clicking on the name of the Clean Board and then duplicate like in the image above.
  6. I made each of the 4 duplicated boards public. I copied the links into a Word document that I shared with the Zoom meeting hosts.
  7. During the Zoom meetings, each host copied their link into the meeting chat. 
  8. We had participants in the Sandbox and going into the wrong board. The only board no one accessed was the Clean Board.
  9. I went back into the Zoom meeting chats and verified that each meeting only shared the link that was for their board, yet somehow the participants crossed boards. 
Robert Johnson
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

@Kathleen Everling:

Two frames from the Clean Board were used to create templates that were then replicated 18 times each for a new board. Each of those 40 frames had an individual link to a Getting Started Frame in the board.

This could be the culprit. Please explain this process in more detail. E.g., How exactly did you create “templates” from these two frames? Did you select them and then Save as template?

 

Or did you copy-and-paste them from the Clean Board to another board? And were they already linked to other objects within the board that you copied them from?

If you still have one of the boards that your participants were “supposed” to be on, but ended up on one where should not have been, do the following:

  1. Note the board ID in the board that you did not expect them to be on, i.e., your “original board” the board ID will be the last part of the link, e.g., for https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lPy_Gbc=/ - the board ID would be “o9J_lPy_Gbc=”
  2. Download a board backup of one of the boards that you created/duplicated from your original, e.g., one of the board with the 40 frames - this will download as a .rtb file
  3. Open that .rtb file a zip program, e.g., https://www.7-zip.org/
  4. Inside the .rtb file will be a file called canvas.json - this file contains all of the board object data - sticky notes ,their colors, frames and objects with link and where they link to.
  5. Open that in a text editor, e.g., Notepad
  6. Now search for the board ID of the original board. I suspect there may be a frame(s) that are linking back to your original board.

This would make sense why some ended up on the original board and others did not, presumably because some users were to go to specific, i.e., bad linked, frames and others did not.

When you link to objects in a board and then duplicate the board, Miro will look for any links TO objects that are IN that same board and will then update the links so that they reference the newly created board in which they are located.

Here’s an example of my test board canvas.json - the test boad has two frames, one linking to the other:

 

Visual Thinker | Volunteer Community Moderator
K

Thank you. That cleared things up. So, I need to duplicate the boards, then create any internal links prior to making the duplicates. :clap_tone1:

 

FYI -- I saved each frame as a separate template. 

In both of the cases where the duplicates were getting crossed, there were multiple internal links. Basically, I was setting them up for 20 breakout rooms - 2 different activities.

I created a frame for each breakout room and each activity.

Then I created a Start Here space with links to each frame. 

 

When I did it for a single class/meeting - it worked great. It was only when I made duplications that I had issues. 

I have to give a faculty development workshop on Miro next month and don’t want to have them recreate my issues!!

 

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