There are a number of reasons that your SIMS AutoLink may have stopped working, most commonly a school-side change to the SIMS server.

Below is a troubleshooting guide that should help get it back up and running, if you do not find a solution below, please connect to one of our technical support specialists on Live Chat who will be able to assist.

1) Are you receiving an error message when you run the installer? You will receive this if you do not have microsoft.net framework 4.6.1 or higher on your computer. You can download this for free here. Please note: This will take around 5 minutes and your computer will need to be restarted afterwards

2) Have you set the base location of the SIMS auto link to C:\Program Files\ParentMail\SIMS AutoLink\?

3) Have you checked your reports? The name of the reports need to match exactly how they appear on the instructions with no spaces or additions either side of the report name. Please make sure they are saved in the base location C:\Program Files\ParentMail\SIMS AutoLink\

4) Have you checked your SIMS login details are correct and that your account has the relevant permissions required to run the report? The account will need Third Party Reporting, Personnel Officer and Admin Assistant rights. If you have added any of the rights onto your SIMS account, please remember to log out and log back into SIMS to update the account. Please ensure the login details are entered correctly in the config manager, there must be no spaces before, or after the login details.

5) Is the SIMS database location correct? When looking at your connect.ini file it may show a redirect to another location. You can find this by going to C:Drive > Program Files > SIMS > SIMS.net > Type in ‘connect.ini’ to find the file.

6) If you have had a recent update with your SIMS server, please open the SIMS Autolink configuration manager > Click the School Name > Under ‘Server Name’ you will need to update the SIMS server name. You can find this by going to C:Drive > Program Files > SIMS > SIMS.net > Type in ‘connect.ini’ to find the file. Please remember to click File > Save before you attempt to Ping and Sync the installation.

7) You may need to uninstall the SIMS autolink on the old server and re-install on the new server. Please remember to go into the main admin’s ParentMail account > Settings > SIMS Autolink > Disable Autolink for you to be able to generate a new API key for the new set up.

8) Do you require a proxy server set up? You can check this by looking in Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings > Proxy Server. (You may need to check your advanced proxy settings if the box is ticked, but no address appears).

9) Have you checked that your service is running? Go to the config manager and select Tools and then Service Status. If it is red, click restart then then move on to the next step.

10) When you finish the setup wizard, if you are unable to save the configuration, you will need to ensure you have permission to save in the ParentMail folder on the C Drive on your machine. To do this, go to Start > Computer > C:/ > Program Files > Right click on ParentMail and select Properties > Security > Advanced > Change Permissions > Type ‘everyone’ in the object name box, select ‘check names’, then click OK. Then click ‘Apply’ and then OK on the open security windows. You can now go back to the configuration manager and retry to save the configuration.

11) Click Ping then Sync. If you do not get presented with a date and time in both boxes after a short wait you will need to locate the log file and email this to ParentMail for further help. Please email the log file to school_support@parentmail.co.uk. The log file is likely to be located here: (C:\logs\parentmailreportexporter)

12) If you get a date and time stamp, you will have one more thing to check. Log in to https://pmx.parentmail.co.uk and go to Imports on your left hand menu. From here, select Imports from the sub menu and you will see the file names of all your imports to the right. If your Auto Link is working correctly, you will see a new import for today with (autolink) next to it. This means that the data is now being uploaded in your ParentMail account.

13) If you cannot see a new import, please click the Live Chat option above the left hand menu of ParentMail or go to Help > Live Chat. Please have your log file ready, it is likely to be located here: (C:\logs\parentmailreportexporter)