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Parsing failures

What to do when a source shows Parsing failed.

Word files

If a Word file shows Couldn’t read this Word file, it is usually password-protected, a legacy DOC file renamed to .docx, or damaged. Saving a new copy in Word or WPS usually fixes it.

  1. Open the original file in Word or WPS and check that its contents display correctly. If it does not open, find an intact copy first.
  2. If the file requires a password to open, remove the password in Word or WPS.
  3. Choose File > Save As, select Word Document (.docx) as the format, and save it as a new file. Renaming the extension does not convert the format.
  4. In DeepShelf, hover over the failed file, click ⋯ on the right, choose Delete, and then upload the newly saved file.

If the new file still fails, save it as a PDF and upload that instead.

TXT files

If a TXT file shows Unrecognized text encoding, the file is not UTF-8 and DeepShelf cannot tell which encoding it uses. This is common for files saved in an older regional encoding, such as Big5 for Traditional Chinese, Shift-JIS for Japanese, EUC-KR for Korean, or Windows-1252 for Western European languages, and for very short GBK files. The file is not parsed, so garbled text never becomes part of your sources. Saving the file as UTF-8 fixes it.

  1. Open the file in a text editor and check that the text displays correctly. On Windows you can use Notepad. If the text is garbled, or you use a Mac, open it in VS Code: click the encoding name in the status bar at the bottom right, choose Reopen with Encoding, and select the encoding the file actually uses, such as Big5.
  2. Save it as a new UTF-8 file. In Notepad, choose File > Save As and select UTF-8 under Encoding. In VS Code, click the encoding name again, choose Save with Encoding, and select UTF-8.
  3. In DeepShelf, hover over the failed file, click ⋯ on the right, choose Delete, and then upload the newly saved file.

If the text is still garbled in every encoding you try, find the original file first.

Other files

Hover over the failed file, click ⋯ on the right, and choose Retry. If it still fails, check that the original file opens on your computer and is not password-protected, then delete it and upload it again.

Still not working

Email us with the file name and when you uploaded it.