SeaDoc 2.0 – Cannot open .docx/.xlsx files ("Preview is not available for this file format")

SeaDoc
1

Hi everyone,

I’m running Seafile Professional Server 13.0.12 (Docker 28.5.1, compose 2.40.3) on Debian 13 with Caddy as reverse proxy and SeaDoc 2.0 enabled. SeaDoc container is running fine (seafileltd/sdoc-server:2.0-latest), but I cannot open any Office documents (.xlsx, .xls, .ods, etc.) in the browser (Firefox 144).

When I try to open a file, Seafile shows this message:

“Preview is not available for this file format. Download.”

Relevant .env settings:

ENABLE_SEADOC=true
SEADOC_IMAGE=seafileltd/sdoc-server:2.0-latest
SEADOC_VOLUME=/srv/docker/seafile/seadoc-data
JWT_PRIVATE_KEY=SomeRedactedKey
COMPOSE_FILE=‘seafile-server.yml,caddy.yml,seadoc.yml’

SeaDoc container status:

$ docker ps | grep sdoc
seadoc seafileltd/sdoc-server:2.0-latest Up 2 days 80/tcp

Seadoc logs

*** Running /etc/my_init.d/01_init.sh…
*** Booting runit daemon…
*** Runit started as PID 11
*** Running /scripts/enterpoint.sh…
2025-11-01 00:23:41 Waiting Nginx
2025-11-01 00:23:41 Nginx ready
2025-11-01 00:23:41 This is an idle script (infinite loop) to keep container running.
sdoc-server started

[2025-11-01 00:23:42] Start Monitor
server is serve on http://127.0.0.1:7070

What I tried

  • Confirmed the SeaDoc container is running
  • Checked logs (no errors, service starts normally)
  • Restarted all containers

Thanks in advance for any hints or confirmation from others running Seafile 13 + SeaDoc!

2

The message you are encountering, “Preview is not available for this file format”, occurs because SeaDoc only supports editing for specific file formats like sdoc and excalidraw. Unfortunately, SeaDoc does not provide the capability to edit Office files such as .xlsx, .xls, or .ods.

To edit Office files within Seafile, you will need to integrate with either OnlyOffice or CollaboraOnline. These tools are designed to handle Office file formats and offer the editing capabilities you need.

3

Thanks a lot for the clarification — that explains everything!
I wasn’t aware that SeaDoc 2.0 dropped support for Office formats and now focuses only on .sdoc and .excalidraw files.

That makes perfect sense now why I kept getting the “Preview is not available for this file format” message with .docx and .xlsx.

I’ll go ahead and set up an OnlyOffice Document Server for handling Office files inside Seafile.
Thanks again for the quick and detailed reply — really appreciate it!