rallyHelpChapter 12 · Help and glossary / 12.1
When a link won't open
What each 'Rally could not open that link' message means and what to do about it.
Lots of things hand you into Rally by link: an invitation email, the browser page you sign in on, the page where you approve a connection to Google or Slack, a Channel link a teammate pasted into Slack. Most of the time the link does its job and you land where you meant to. This page is for the other times.
The "Rally could not open that link" window
When the Rally app on your Mac is given a link it will not follow, a small window appears in front of whatever you were doing. It is titled Rally could not open that link. Under the title is one sentence saying why, and under that is a single Continue button.
Read the sentence, then click Continue. The button is already selected when the window opens, so Return does the same thing. Closing the window with the red close button at its top left works too.
A few things about this window:
- Continue does not try the link again. It only closes the window. Rally never replays a failed link by itself, because sign-in and connection links are often good for one use only. Fix the cause, then click the original link again or start the action again from inside Rally.
- There is only ever one. If a second failure arrives while the window is open, the new message replaces the old one and the window comes back to the front. Usually both are the same failure reported twice, so you have not missed much.
- It floats on top. It stays in front of every Rally window, including Settings, until you dismiss it. That is deliberate: a failed connection used to leave no message at all, which was worse.
- It works whatever state Rally is in, even while it is starting up or after your session has expired.
- It is on the Mac only. The iPhone app and the browser version do not have it.
When you are signed out
If you are not signed in at all, Rally does not open the window. The sign-in screen is the only thing showing, so the message appears there instead, under the sign-in buttons. For example:
Sign in before opening this channel link.
Sign in, then click the link again. Rally forgot the link when it refused it, so it will not open the Channel for you after you sign in.
You may also see Your session expired. Sign in again to continue. on the sign-in screen. That is not a link problem: your sign-in ran out and Rally brought you back to the start. Sign in again and carry on. Signing in, signing out and Lockdown mode explains how long a sign-in lasts.
If you are signed in but have not joined an Organization yet, failures still use the window, not the sign-in screen.
What each message means
Find the sentence you saw in the left column. The text in angle brackets, like
<email>, stands for whatever Rally filled in.
Invitations
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| This invitation is invalid, expired, or no longer available. | The invitation has run out (they last seven days), was cancelled, or has already been used. Rally is not told which, on purpose. | Ask an owner or administrator of that Organization to send you a new invitation. |
This invitation is for <email>. Sign in with that account to continue. | You are signed in with a different account from the one the invitation was sent to. Upper and lower case do not matter, but every other character does. | Choose Log out from the account menu, sign in with the address in the message, then click the invitation link again. |
Rally forgets an invitation once it fails, so after you fix the cause you always need to open the link from the email again. Invitations themselves are covered in Create or join an Organization and, for the person sending them, Inviting people.
Signing in
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
Sign in could not be completed: <reason> | Click Continue and start signing in again from Rally. |
| Sign in could not be completed. | The same: start signing in again. |
| The sign-in link did not match Rally's identity service. | Start signing in again from Rally, not from an old browser tab. |
| Rally received an unexpected sign-in link. | Start signing in again from Rally. |
| Sign in to Rally again, then reopen this link. | Your account sign-in needs renewing before Rally can open a link into an Organization. Sign in, then click the link again. On some Macs Rally opens the browser sign-in for you and then carries on to the link by itself. |
The reason after "Sign in could not be completed:" comes from the sign-in page itself, so it can read oddly, something like "access denied" or "unknown error". If the same reason keeps appearing, it is exactly what support needs to see.
If you started signing in twice, Rally ignores the return from the older attempt without a word. Only the newest one counts.
Connecting a tool
When you connect Google, GitHub, Slack and friends, you approve Rally on the
tool's own page in your browser, which then sends you back to Rally. If that
return trip goes wrong you see one of these. <Connector> is the tool's name,
or "Connector" on its own when Rally cannot tell which tool it was.
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
<Connector> authorization was cancelled. | You pressed cancel or deny on the tool's page. | If you meant to connect, open Settings → Connections and click Connect again. |
<Connector> could not be connected. Try again. | The tool reported a failure. | Try Connect again. If it fails twice, contact support. |
| Rally received an invalid connector completion link. | The link was damaged, you have no Organization open, or it came from a different Rally region from the Organization you have open. | Open the right Organization, then start Connect again from Settings → Connections. |
| Your Slack account could not be linked. | Linking your Slack account to Rally did not work. Sometimes the window shows a more specific reason instead. | Try linking again. |
Slack was linked, but personal Slack tools could not be connected: <reason> | Your Slack account is linked to Rally, but your own Slack connection did not finish. | The link is kept. Add your personal Slack connection again from Settings → Connections. |
| Sign in to the matching Rally organization before connecting your Slack account. | You are not in the Organization the Slack link is for. | Switch to, or sign in to, that Organization, then click the link again. |
When a connection succeeds, nothing pops up. Rally refreshes the list in Settings → Connections and usually opens it so you can see the new row. Settings → Connections covers the rest, and Slack explains the two kinds of Slack connection.
Links into an Organization
Links to a Space, a Channel, a Sidekick or a page of Settings belong to one Organization. Before Rally follows one, it switches to that Organization. If it cannot, you see one of these and nothing changes: you stay exactly where you were.
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Rally could not access the organization this link belongs to. | You are not a member of that Organization, or no longer are. | Ask an owner or administrator there to invite you again. |
| Rally could not reach that organization. Check your connection, then reopen this link. | A network problem, on your side or ours. | Check your internet connection, then click the link again. |
| Sign in to Rally again, then reopen this link. | Your sign-in needs renewing. | Sign in, then click the link again. |
The first message is also what Rally says when something unexpected goes wrong on the way in, so it does not always mean your membership has ended. If you are sure you are still a member, try the link once more, then contact support.
A link is an address, not a key. If a teammate sends you a link to a private Channel you are not in, it will open Rally but not the Channel. Who can see what explains why, and how to be let in.
Other messages
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Sign in before starting a channel. | Sign in, or open an Organization, then try again. |
| Sign in before opening this Space link. | Sign in, then click the link again. |
| Sign in before opening this channel link. | Sign in, then click the link again. |
| Sign in before creating an automation. | Sign in, then click the link again. "Automation" is the old name for a Sidekick; this message has not caught up yet. |
| Rally could not open that note link. | The link is damaged. Ask whoever sent it to copy it again from inside Rally. |
| Rally could not open that link. | Something unexpected went wrong. Try the link once more. If it keeps happening, contact support with the time it happened. |
A link to start a new Channel opens Rally and leaves the choosing to you: click New channel at the top of the sidebar and pick a Space. A link to make a new Sidekick opens the app's home. Neither of those is a failure. Each is a link with modest ambitions.
When a browser link does not open Rally at all
Links to Spaces, Channels and Breakouts are ordinary web addresses starting
with https://rallywith.ai/app/. If Rally is installed, the link should open
straight in the app. Otherwise you see a short web page that hands you over,
as described in Search and links.
If you end up staring at a browser page and no Rally:
- Check Rally is installed. If the page says to install Rally, it could not find the app. Follow Install Rally and sign in, then come back to the link.
- Click Open Rally on the page, if there is one. Your browser may ask whether it may open Rally. Say yes.
- Open Rally first, then the link again. Start Rally from Applications, wait for it to finish opening, then click the original link once more.
- Search instead. If the link is to a Channel you can see, the search in Rally gets you there as well. Search for its name.
Who to ask
- An invitation, a role, or an Organization you cannot get into: an owner or administrator of that Organization. Only they can send a new invitation or change who belongs. Roles: owners, administrators, members and guests explains who can do what.
- A private Channel you cannot open: someone who is already in it, who can add you.
- An Organization connection that will not connect: an owner or administrator, since only they can manage those.
- Anything that keeps failing after you have tried the fix above: the Rally team. Contacting support says how, and copying the exact sentence from the window into your email saves a round trip.