A quick decoder for everything the upload dialog can tell you.
Before the upload starts
- File type / size — PDFs and images up to 50 MB, CSV/Excel up to 10 MB. Larger files: split the PDF or compress the scan.
During and after
- Stuck at a percentage — the secure transfer is still moving; very large scans on slow connections take a while. A dropped connection is retried automatically, a couple of times, before a file is marked failed. If it's truly frozen, Cancel and retry.
- Leaving the page — while files are still transferring your browser asks before you leave, because a transfer in progress stops when the page closes. Once a file has uploaded you can close the dialog or the tab; processing continues on its own.
- Starting — the file has finished uploading and the dialog is asking for it to be processed. If the server is busy or the connection blips, it waits and tries again on its own for up to two minutes; the note under the file name says so while it waits. You don't need to do anything.
- Uploaded, but processing couldn't start yet — the dialog stopped retrying, but the file is safely stored and starts processing on its own — usually within a few minutes, and always within the hour. There's no need to upload it again (if you do, you still end up with one copy, not two). Until it starts, the document row on the Files tab reads Uploading.
- Retry N failed uploads — shown at the end when files failed to transfer (the connection dropped and stayed down). It re-sends only those files, from your browser, and leaves everything that already uploaded alone.
- Checking whether the transfer finished… — the connection dropped at the very end of a transfer, so the dialog is asking whether the file arrived anyway. If it did, it goes on to process like any other; if not, it shows Transfer failed.
- Transfer failed — the file didn't reach us. Add it again.
- Analyzing for a long time — normal for big or scanned documents; OCR is the slow part. You can close the dialog with Close — continue in background and keep working.
- Failed — the file didn't process. It no longer just says "Failed": the note under the file name (and a matching tag on the document row in the Files tab) says which of these it was.
- Canceled — you stopped it before it finished transferring; just re-add the file.
- Closed the browser mid-upload? Files that had finished transferring start processing on their own within the hour, and the rest are removed — on the Files tab both read Uploading until then. Re-adding any of them is safe: a copy that had already arrived is dropped, so you won't end up with two.
- Held — limit reached — the file wasn't read because your free first transaction has used all the AI processing included with it. It's held, not lost — buying a transaction lifts the limit and it processes, and you get another transaction to use as well. There's no page limit on any transaction, free or purchased; a file held at the old 200-page limit (retired October 2026) just needs uploading again.
- Partly read — limit reached — the transaction ran out of included AI processing part-way through this file, so some pages were read and the rest weren't. The file stays in the transaction with everything that was read, and the document row shows N pages not read — limit reached. Buying a transaction has the rest read.
What each "Failed" reason means
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| This PDF is password-protected | Open it, re-save or print it to a new PDF without the password, and upload that. Common on HOA, lender and title "secure transmission" files. |
| This file looks damaged or incomplete | The download was truncated or the file is corrupt. Re-download it from wherever it came from. |
| This image couldn't be opened | Re-save the photo or scan as a JPEG or PNG and upload that. |
| This file type isn't supported | Re-save it as a PDF. Accepted types are PDF, JPG/PNG/WEBP/HEIC, CSV and Excel. |
| The file's contents don't match its extension | Usually a renamed file — a .pdf that is really something else. Re-save it in its real format. |
| This ZIP couldn't be expanded | The archive was too large, held too many entries, or would take you over your storage. Unzip it on your computer and upload the files directly — re-dropping the same .zip hits the same limit. |
| This ZIP didn't hold any files we can read | The archive opened fine but everything inside it was a type we don't read. Open it on your computer and check what's in it. |
| Some of this ZIP's files may already have been added | We were partway through unpacking the archive when the job stopped. Anything it had already added is on the Files tab and is still being read — look there first and upload only what's missing. Uploading the same .zip again would add everything a second time. |
| This PDF only opens properly in Adobe Reader | A dynamic form or a portfolio — it looks right in Adobe and blank everywhere else. Open it in Adobe Reader, print or export it as a standard PDF, and upload that. |
| Too many pages to process | Split the PDF and upload the parts separately. |
| We couldn't read any text from this file | The page is blank, or the scan is too low-resolution to OCR. Re-scan at 300 dpi or higher, or re-take the photo in better light. |
| Something went wrong while processing this file | Nothing specific to fix — try uploading it again. If it keeps failing, send it to support. |
| Processing never started for this file | Nothing started the file after it was uploaded, and we couldn't start it for you — usually because whoever uploaded it no longer has edit access to the transaction. Upload it again. |
A ZIP that only partly unpacked
When you drag a .zip into the upload dialog, your browser opens it and uploads the documents inside individually — so there is nothing to unpack on our side and nothing to go wrong here.
A .zip that reaches us whole is different. That happens when the archive is emailed to the transaction's address. We open it and add each supported document inside as its own file, but some of what's inside can still be left out: a file type we don't read, a password-protected entry, one member that's too big, or an archive holding more entries than we'll open in one go.
That never passes silently, and where it shows depends on how the archive arrived:
- Emailed — the message in the Email tab says N attachments weren't added with the reason, and the attachment itself is chipped Couldn't file. The archive stays downloadable from the message.
- Expanded on our side — the archive's own row on the Files tab carries an amber tag (N of M files not added, or Only N of at least M files unpacked when we stopped before the end of the archive), and the same thing appears in the transaction's Needs you queue. Hover the tag to see which files were left out and why.
The fix is always the same: unzip the package on your computer and upload whatever's missing directly. Sending the same .zip again produces the same result.
Pages that couldn't be read
On the Files tab a finished document can carry one of two amber warnings, and they mean different things:
- N pages not read — limit reached — nothing is wrong with those pages; the transaction's included AI processing ran out before reaching them. Buy a transaction and they'll be read for you.
- N pages unread — those pages were attempted but couldn't be read (a very degraded scan, or a page the reader refused). Open the document and read those pages yourself, and check the transaction record for anything missing.
If a healthy-looking file keeps failing
Open the account menu under your avatar → Contact support, choose Issue, and tell us the transaction and the file name. Don't email the document itself — support will tell you if they need it.
The closing statement check won't take my file
The Closing statement check card accepts the same types as an ordinary upload — PDF, images, CSV and Excel — and now tells you up front if a file is the wrong type, too large, or empty, instead of accepting it and failing later. If a statement used to upload "successfully" and then never show as matching the record, try it again: a file the browser couldn't identify was previously sent as if it were a PDF.