What can you do when you have an export issue in your client file that comes from a corrupted PDF?

A PDF is a very complex file format and with a very large number of different applications generating PDFs it can happen that the PDF file itself contains errors which can prevent Silverfin from processing it. You might find that the PDF looks fine Mac’s Preview app or in Acrobat Reader. This is because these applications contain a huge collection of special handling code to fix a range of PDF file errors. This fixing logic is unavailable to Silverfin, but you can take advantage of the fact that you probably already have these tools on your machine to fix the issue with your PDF and then re-upload it to Silverfin. 

Below you'll find 3 options depending on your laptop/desktop.

1. Preview app

If you’re using a Mac then you have Preview application installed, as it is part of the standard set of applications.

Open your PDF in it and then select File → Export ...

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When the dialogue opens, select PDF as the format and export the document. It may seem weird that you are exporting a PDF as a PDF, but this will cause Preview to process the PDF and auto-fix many errors within it. Then take the new document and upload it into Silverfin instead of the old one.

2. Acrobat Reader

If you’re on a Windows machine, then you most likely have Acrobat Reader installed.Open the PDF in Acrobat Reader and then select File → Save As :

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When the dialogue opens, select PDF as the format. It may seem weird that you are exporting a PDF as a PDF, but this will cause Acrobat to process the PDF and auto-fix many errors within it. Then take the new document and upload it into Silverfin instead of the old one.3. 

Print to PDF

 If you either don’t have one of the above applications or for some reason that doesn’t fix the problem, there is another thing you can try. There is a good chance that you can already print to PDF. Open the print dialogue and in the printer selection look for a PDF printer. If you have it, you can use it to print the PDF into a fresh PDF. This process usually fixes any errors in the PDF file. Then take the new document and upload it into Silverfin instead of the old one.