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Onboarding Issues

This short tutorial should solve your problem.

Issue 1: Document upload error or an error occurred

You see an error message pop-up that says, "Error uploading [filename]. An Error Occurred."



Cause A: The document is corrupted

Your file may be corrupted, which means there are metadata issues in the file that occurred during original document generation, scanning, or some other conversion process, has produced an invalid PDF (i.e., one that doesn’t conform to PDF structure standards).

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Solution A

To solve this issue:

  1. Save as a new PDF: Programs such as Adobe Reader®, Adobe Acrobat® and Foxit Reader® have a built-in ability to correct any PDF structure/metadata issues. Opening your PDF and saving it as a new file will remedy this.

  2. Print the document to a new PDF: This option is supported by owners of Adobe Acrobat Professional® (paid) or Foxit Reader (free). You can do this by opening the file in either program, going to File > Print, and selecting Adobe PDF or Foxit PDF as the printer. Choose the option to Shrink to Printable Area and click Ok. This will print the document to a new PDF and reduce the file size. Remember that if you have active form fields in your document, they will be flattened. Detailed instructions can be found here.

  3. Use PDF optimization: This is a tool included with Adobe Acrobat Professional (version 8 and up) that will re-sample and compress the document, resulting in a reduced file size. If you do not have this tool, then you will need to re-scan the document using the tips above or use a free online optimizer---though we do not recommend uploading confidential documents to such free services 

  4. Use the DocuSign Print Driver to upload the document: The Print Driver is a useful tool provided by DocuSign that often remedies this problem as well as many other file corruption issues. This tool allows you to send the document to a DocuSign envelope directly from your PDF or word processor software.

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Cause B: The document contains macros

Macros are commonly used in Microsoft Word® and Excel® documents. While documents with macro-intended file extensions are supported (e.g., .xlsm, .docm, .pptm) and macro-enabled documents may upload successfully, DocuSign does not technically support documents with macros. You can check to see if your document contains macros by opening the document in its respective program going to View > Macros.

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Solution B

To solve this issue:

  1. Remove the macros: Open the document in its respective program, go to View > Macros and delete them.

  2. Save the file as a PDF before uploading: This is accomplished using the File > Save As function in Word and Excel.

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Cause C: Document is password-protected or secured

There are two passwords that affect a PDF and both are optional: a PDF document may have one, both, or neither. Unfortunately, a variety of adjectives exist to describe these passwords; there is no consistency in usage. These are:

  • The access (i.e., read, document open, or user) password, necessary in order to be able to decrypt and open the document

  • The owner (i.e., edit or permissions) password, needed in order to change permissions, or to create, update or delete the access password (permissions include the ability to print the document or make changes to it)

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DocuSign does not support access-password-protected documents. If you try to upload such a document, you should see a specific error stating "this file is password protected."

"Error uploading [filename]: Unable to load the document ([DocumentId]: Password Protected [filename]). Document is password protected, please remove password protection before using the document."

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