Troubleshooting
Common issues and how to fix them.
A manual is stuck in Processing
Most manuals finish processing in under a minute, but large or complex PDFs can take a few minutes. If it's been more than five minutes:
- Refresh the page — the status badge updates as soon as the background job finishes.
- From the manual's card menu, choose Re-process. This re-runs text extraction and embeddings.
- If it keeps failing, the PDF is likely scanned/image-only — see the next section.
The manual shows Error or empty answers
ManualVault searches the text of a PDF. If your file is a scanned image (a photo of paper pages, no embedded text layer) we can't read it. The manual will either fail processing with status Error or process successfully but return empty answers to questions.
How to tell:
- Open the PDF and try to select a word with your cursor. If you can't, it's scanned.
- Try Find Online with the make and model — manufacturer PDFs almost always have a text layer.
- As a last resort, run the file through an OCR tool first (Adobe Acrobat, Preview, or an online OCR service) and re-upload.
The photo flow can't read my nameplate
If we tell you we couldn't identify the make and model from your photo, try:
- More light. Avoid heavy shadows on the label.
- Closer crop. Fill the frame with the nameplate.
- Square on, not at an angle.
- The manual cover is often easier to read than the nameplate — try that instead.
- If all else fails, use Find Online and type the model number by hand.
I hit my daily Q&A limit
The free plan caps AI questions at 10 per day, shared across your workspace. The counter resets at midnight UTC. If you need more, upgrade to Pro for unlimited questions.
The AI gave a wrong or incomplete answer
A few things to try:
- Check the source chip under the answer — is it citing the right manual? If not, rephrase with the model number to disambiguate.
- Be more specific. "What's the error code on the Bosch SHX878ZD5N for low rinse aid?" beats "fix dishwasher error".
- Open the cited manual directly and verify. AI answers are a fast lookup, not a substitute for the manual itself on safety-critical procedures.
- If the manual itself doesn't cover what you're asking, no AI can answer it.
I'm stuck on the sign-in screen after Google sign-in
If you bounce back to the sign-in screen after signing in with Google, clear your browser cache for manualvault.io and try again. The first sign-in completes an OAuth exchange and writes a session cookie — stale or blocked cookies will cause a loop.
Still stuck?
Email support@manualvault.io with your workspace name and a description of what you tried. We usually reply within a business day.