Troubleshooting

File Loading & Upload Issues

Not a PDF (or wrong extension): confirm the format; images belong in images-to-PDF, which runs in your browser with no upload.
Encrypted PDF: unlock it first — unlock a PDF removes the open password locally (free, no upload; you need to know it).
Over the size cap: split the file with split a PDF or switch to a cloud task; the exact caps are on File Size & Quota Limits.
Mobile picker does nothing: pick via the system Files app, or switch to desktop.

JavaScript disabled or blocked: enable JavaScript for this site and pause ad-blockers (see Browser Compatibility).
No file selected: select or drop a file into the tool before running.
Error on page: screenshot the message and file a ticket via support.

Messy Word/Excel layout: OCR the scan first — OCR a PDF adds a text layer in your browser (free, no upload) — then re-convert; complex layouts are approximate by design.
Garbled CJK text: source PDFs without embedded fonts may lose glyphs; nothing client-side can restore missing font data.
Redacted text still selectable: you used Whiteout (masking only). Use redact a PDF or redact PII from a PDF instead — both delete the text from the content stream locally — and verify as described in Redact an SSN From a PDF.
Grayscale/redacted files got bigger: a normal side effect of rasterized output.
Metadata still there: use remove metadata from a PDF, not remove-annotations — different targets.
Compression saved less than expected: structural recompression is lossless and does not re-encode images; for scan-heavy files, shrink the source images first — see Compress a PDF Without Uploading It.

402 quota errors: your cloud credits are exhausted — wait for the window reset, or see Free vs Paid on PDFLean for what uses credits and Pricing for current plan amounts.
Timeouts: retryable jobs re-run automatically and end as COMPLETED or FAILED in your history — check the account page later for the result.
Where did my cloud result go? Results are deleted automatically at the end of the retention window — see How Long Are My Files Kept?.