Troubleshooting
Find the message you see or the situation you are in. If nothing matches, write to support from the add-in: your message leaves with its context.
| The problem | Go to |
|---|---|
| Moby does not appear in Excel | Moby is not in Excel |
| I cannot sign in, or I was signed out | Sign-in |
| A run is refused because of my usage | Usage limit |
| A file is refused | Adding documents |
| The Preview shows nothing, or an error | Preview |
| A value is wrong | A value is wrong |
| A run stops, is refused or fails | A run stops or fails |
| A value has no link to its document | A link is missing |
| A row got the wrong document, or none | The wrong document |
Moby is not in Excel
| Try this | Detail |
|---|---|
| Look under the add-ins | Home tab, Add-ins. When your firm deployed Moby, it is listed among the add-ins managed by your administrator |
| Restart Excel | Close every Excel window, then open Excel again |
| Wait | After a deployment by your administrator, Moby can take up to 24 hours to appear |
| Clear the Office cache | On Windows, close Excel and delete the content of %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef\. On Mac, delete ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Caches/ |
| Check the network | A security or certificate error means a domain is blocked. See the domains to allow |
Sign-in
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "No active license. Contact your administrator to get access to the Excel plugin." | You have an account but no licence | Ask your administrator to assign you one, then sign in again |
| "Your license is not active. Contact your administrator." | You have a licence, but it is not active: for example, the subscription of the firm ended | Ask your administrator |
| "Login timed out. Please try again." | The sign-in was not finished within five minutes | Click Sign in again and finish in the browser |
| "Auth state not found or expired", or "This login link has expired" | The browser page is from an earlier attempt | Close it and start again from Excel |
| "This workbook belongs to another organization." | The workbook was built by another firm | You can open it without signing in, in consultation mode: the Preview only |
| "Consultation disabled" | The firm that built the workbook reserved it to its own members | Sign in with an account of that firm |
| "Moby could not read this workbook's link to its documents." | A reading error on the workbook | Click Retry. If it lasts, write to support. Do not reconnect from another workbook |
| You are signed out without a message | The session lasts 24 hours, and signing in on another computer ends it | Sign in again |
| "You do not have access to this project." | The workbook belongs to a project you are not part of | Ask your administrator |
| Nothing seems to happen after Sign in | The sign-in page opens in your default browser, sometimes behind the Excel window | Look for the browser window. If there is none, click Sign in again |
Usage limit
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Your license usage limit has been reached. The job was not launched." | Your budget for the period is used up. Your administrator can add credits |
| "Monthly quota exceeded. Upgrade your plan to continue.", in the chat | The same |
| A Payment failed banner at the top of the pane | An administrator clicks Update payment on the banner |
Your account menu shows the share of your budget already used. See Follow usage.
Adding documents
These messages are shown in English in both languages.
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Unsupported file format" | Convert the file. .doc becomes .docx or PDF, .tiff becomes PDF or PNG. See Supported formats |
| "Empty file (0 bytes) — skipped" | The file is empty. Check it on your computer |
| "Filename too long (max 255 characters)" | Shorten the name |
| "Too many files. Maximum 1000 files per upload." | Add the files in several goes |
| "Total size (…) exceeds 10 GB limit." | Add the files in several goes |
| "File too large (max 2048 MB)" | Split the file, or compress the PDF |
| "Upload failed" | Check your connection and try again |
Good to know:
- When you select several files and one has an unsupported format, nothing is added. Remove that file and start again. When you add a folder, the unsupported files are skipped and the others are added.
- A password-protected file cannot be read. Remove the password first.
- A file that will not open on your computer will not open in Moby either.
Preview
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Select a grounded cell or pick a document from the strip above." | The selected cell has no link to a document | Select a cell filled by Moby, or pick a document in the strip. To add a link, see A link is missing |
| "Unable to load the PDF preview." | The page could not be loaded | Check your connection, then select the cell again |
| "Page count unavailable — showing the first page only." | Moby could not count the pages | Click Retry |
| "Failed to load Excel file" | The spreadsheet could not be opened. It may be protected by a password | Remove the password, or save the file again, and add it again |
| "Excel templates (.xltx, .xltm, .xlt) are not supported." | Templates have no preview | Save the file as a regular workbook |
| "This file format is not supported by the sheet viewer." | A .tsv or .xld file has no preview | Open the file itself. A .tsv ledger still works in the data analysis workflows |
| "Spreadsheet sources aren't available in consultation mode." | You are not signed in | Sign in to see this file |
| "No OCR text available for this document yet." | The text view is not ready for this document | Go back to the page view |
| A large spreadsheet is cut | The preview shows the first 10,000 rows and 500 columns | Open the file itself for the rest |
| The page is sideways | The scan is rotated | Use the rotation button of the toolbar |
A value is wrong
Start by finding out which kind of error it is. Click the value, then switch the Preview to Show searchable OCR text.
| What the text view shows | The cause | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| The text itself is wrong: a 0 read as O, a 1 as l, a missing digit | The scan is hard to read | A better scan, or the native PDF. Meanwhile, correct the value by hand |
| The text is right, but Moby took another value | The column title can be read several ways | A precise title, or a description under it |
| The text is right, the value is right, but its form is not | Nothing says which format you want | Say it in the description: "DD/MM/YYYY", "number only, no currency" |
Then, depending on the case:
| Situation | Do this |
|---|---|
| One value to fix | Correct it by hand in the Preview. See Correct a value by hand |
| A whole column is off | Fix the title or the description, clear the column, and run the workflow again on the table. A filled cell is never overwritten, so clear what you want read again |
| The amount is a total you expected Moby to compute | The workflow extracts, it does not compute. Extract the values and sum in Excel |
| Values are missing at the end of a long document | Only the first 200 pages of a document are read, and the first 800,000 characters of an Excel, CSV or text file |
| A row holds the values of another document | See The wrong document |
The rules for titles and descriptions are in Build a good table.
A run stops or fails
Before the run
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Select a table in Excel to fill." and Launch stays grey | Select at least the header row of your table. The link How to select? shows how |
| "Too many columns" or "Too many rows" | The table goes beyond 30 columns or 400 rows. Split the table, or run it in several parts |
| "Selected table text is too long." | A cell of the selection holds more than 5,000 characters. Shorten it or leave it out |
| "Reduce selection to … or fewer documents" | Too many documents for one run. Run them in several batches |
| "Could not load workflow limits. Please try again." | A network problem. Click Retry |
| Before I continue | Moby is unsure how to read your table and says why. Cancel & fix to correct the sheet, or Continue anyway |
| Confirm launch | The estimated cost of the run is significant. Launch to go ahead |
During or after the run
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Extraction failed" or "No data could be extracted" | Check that the documents open in the Preview, then run again. If it fails again, click Report to support on the card |
| "Extraction completed but the results could not be written to the sheet." | The sheet is protected or was changed during the run. Unprotect it, leave the table in place, and run again |
| "Could not write — try another cell", in OCR table | Choose a cell in a free area, on an unprotected sheet |
| A document "has … pages. Split PDF handles up to 200 pages per document." | Cut the PDF into parts of 200 pages or fewer before adding it |
| "The selected files hold … pages", or "are larger than 200 MB in total", in Merge | Merge fewer files at a time |
| "Your Excel version doesn't support inserting workpapers" | Update Excel, or use Excel on the web |
| A workpaper cannot be added in Excel on the web | It holds charts, PivotTables, comments or slicers, or it is too large. Open the workbook in the Excel desktop app |
| "the tabs could not be inserted — download the workbook" | Click Download the workbook: it holds the same tabs |
| "This FEC is over 8M rows — split it by period and retry." | Split the ledger by period |
| "Fix the export before launching" | The ledger cannot be read reliably. Correct the export. See Data analysis |
Keep the workbook and the Moby pane open until the card shows the result: the pane is what writes it in the sheet.
A link is missing
Moby links a value to its source when it can find the value on the page. Some values have no link, and that is expected.
| The value | Why it has no link |
|---|---|
| Was calculated: a formula, a sum, a result of the agent | It is printed nowhere in a document |
| Was written in another form than on the document: a date rewritten, a text summarised | Moby could not find it word for word |
| Comes from a poor scan | The text read on the page does not match the value |
| Was typed by you | No document was involved |
| Comes from OCR table | That workflow writes the tables without links |
To add the link yourself: select the cell, show the document in the Preview, choose the mode Draw a box and frame the value. The cell keeps its value and gains its link. See Correct a value by hand.
The wrong document
In matching mode, Moby finds the document of each row from the filled columns of the row, the keys.
Check the keys first
| Check | Why |
|---|---|
| The row holds a reference printed on the document: an invoice number, an order number | A reference identifies. An amount or a date alone often does not |
| The key is written as on the document | A reference copied as printed is found more surely than a shortened one |
| The amount is the one printed on the document | An amount helps only when the same figure is on the document: excluding VAT on both sides, or including VAT on both |
| Each PDF holds one document | A PDF that bundles several documents is read less reliably. Use Split first |
Then correct
| Situation | Do this |
|---|---|
| A row got a document that is not its own | In the Preview, Break link with this document, then clear the values it brought |
| A row should get one more document | Add a source in the Preview, then extract the missing values by hand |
| A document should not take part at all | In the Documents panel, Exclude document |
| A document was not placed | It is listed in the sheet Unmatched documents, with the reason: not matched, duplicate of another one, or failed |
| Several rows are wrong | Fix the keys, clear the cells Moby filled on those rows, and run again on the whole table |
Write to support
Type /support in the chat, or open the account menu and click Support. On a failed run, Report to support on the card does the same with the context of the run.
| In the form | Good to know |
|---|---|
| What happened? | What you did, what you expected, what happened instead |
| Screenshots | The most useful thing you can send. Paste them straight into the form |
| The workbook | Included by default, up to 150 MB. Untick the box to send without it |
| Other files | Up to 5 files of 10 MB each. No need to send documents already in Moby |
You get a reference, and the answer comes by e-mail. If your firm named a support contact, that person reads your request first.
If the form itself cannot be sent, write to support@mobyanalytics.com.