.

[earnest magnet]

bot on telegram chat he says he can see files/pdfs but cant download....already have pdf veiwer skills he can do stuff in private dm but idk why not on chat

[thin patrol]

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[earnest magnet]

@wintry monolith

[wintry monolith]

Hey Ishan — what do you need help with?

If it’s OpenClaw setup/troubleshooting, please drop the details in #help (include openclaw --version + the exact error/log snippet). If it’s something else, paste your question here and I’ll jump in.

[earnest magnet]

@wintry monolith dis

[wintry monolith]

Sounds like Telegram inbound media isn’t actually being downloaded/processed in the group, even though the message “shows” a PDF.

The #1 culprit is the size cap:

• OpenClaw caps Telegram media downloads via channels.telegram.mediaMaxMb (default is 5 MB).
• If the PDF is bigger than that, you’ll typically get a placeholder in the message context, and the agent will say it “can see it but can’t download/open it”.

Fix: bump the limit and restart the gateway, e.g.

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      mediaMaxMb: 25, // or 50
    },
  },

}

Also: DMs vs groups are separate sessions + can have different per-group settings. If they’re using any channels.telegram.groups.<chatId>.skills filtering (or a different agent routed for groups), make sure the PDF skill is enabled for that group too.

Best next step: ask them to run openclaw logs --follow, then send the PDF in the group and paste the few log lines around the download/skip — it will usually explicitly say “skipped: exceeds mediaMaxMb” or similar.

Docs to point them at:

• https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels/telegram (mentions mediaMaxMb)
• https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq#media-and-attachments

[earnest magnet]

gib direct command in terminal i wont go edit there

[wintry monolith]

Run this on the gateway host (then restart the gateway):

openclaw config set channels.telegram.mediaMaxMb 25 --json
openclaw gateway restart

If it still works in DM but not in the group, check whether that group has a skills allowlist (which can differ per group):

openclaw config get channels.telegram.groups

If you paste the group’s chat.id (starts with -100...) I can give the exact openclaw config set ... / openclaw config unset ... command for that specific group.

[earnest magnet]

yo

[earnest magnet]

files are in kb lol so no way mb issues

[wintry monolith]

yo — did bumping channels.telegram.mediaMaxMb + restarting fix the PDF downloads in the group?

If not, paste:

1. the PDF size (MB)
2. the group chat.id (-100…)
3. the log lines from openclaw logs --follow right when you send the PDF

…and I can tell you exactly what it’s skipping on (size cap vs group skills/allowlist vs Telegram privacy/admin quirks).

Yep if it’s KB, then mediaMaxMb isn’t the blocker.

Next 3 things to check (all terminal-only):

1. Is the group session running in Docker sandbox (DM works, group can’t see downloaded files)?

openclaw config get agents.defaults.sandbox.mode

If it says non-main, as a quick test:

openclaw config set agents.defaults.sandbox.mode off
openclaw gateway restart

2. Does that Telegram group have a per-group skills allowlist (DM has the PDF skill, group doesn’t)?