Virus Scanning PDF issue again...

I was having this issue when PDF uploads were first introduced, then it worked for several weeks, and now it is back to failing. Sometimes I get a pop up window saying an internal error has occurred (500), but most of the time it uploads and then just gets stuck in Virus Scanning. The older method of deleting and then adding from the library doesn't work as the file never shows up in the library. Any tips?

I'm having the same issue. So frustrating.

Having the same problem

Same problem here, still

Same problem. Any updates on a solution? 

Could everyone having this issue please post the following information:  1) PDF size?  2) What browser you are using? 3) Have you disabled your extensions (if any)? 4) Have you cleared cache/cookies? 

Ya I'm facing the same issue, it didn't happen like this a couple weeks ago. My info is as follows; 1) 30kb 2) Firefox 3) Yes 4) Yes After clearing, disabling, and restarting not only my computer but also Roll20 the issue persisted.

Deon T. said: Ya I'm facing the same issue, it didn't happen like this a couple weeks ago. My info is as follows; 1) 30kb 2) Firefox 3) Yes 4) Yes After clearing, disabling, and restarting not only my computer but also Roll20 the issue persisted. Could you try Chrome and see if the problem persists there? 

I've tried on both firefox and chrome with the same issue. 

Size: 707KB (UA2022-Expert-Classes.pdf) Browser(s): Firefox (new install), Chrome, Chrome Incognito, Edge Chrome Extensions (tried with them disabled too): Adblock Plus Google Docs Offline PayPal Honey Tab Muter WAVE Evaluation Tool WCAG Color contrast checker Cleared cache (all settings, for all time). Game(s): <a href="https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/8171016" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/8171016</a> <a href="https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/13141266" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/13141266</a>

For those that have issues uploading a PDF, is this multiple PDFs or just one?&nbsp; If it is multiple PDFs are they from the same source or different sources?&nbsp; Not all PDFs are created equal. For example, s ome are encrypted.&nbsp;

Gauss said: For those that have issues uploading a PDF, is this multiple PDFs or just one?&nbsp; If it is multiple PDFs are they from the same source or different sources?&nbsp; Not all PDFs are created equal. For example, s ome are encrypted.&nbsp; I thought I'd tried a couple different ones before posting, but don't know for sure. However, re-downloaded&nbsp; UA2022-Expert-Classes.pdf ,&nbsp;tried to upload it and it still failed. I then tried a couple of random pdfs in my downloads folder. Neither of those had issues. My case must just be the one file then.

My experience has been with several pdfs of various sizes that I built from handouts. None of them were encrypted. Its the virus scanning stage that it stalls on.&nbsp;

David G. said: My experience has been with several pdfs of various sizes that I built from handouts. None of them were encrypted. Its the virus scanning stage that it stalls on.&nbsp; Being encrypted is just one possible reason.&nbsp; My suggestion is to create a bug report with the Devs via the help center and send them the PDFs that are not uploading. Maybe they can determine why.&nbsp;

For what its worth, I had the same issue over and over again with the Expert Classes Unearthed Arcana pdf, and my work around for this was to open the PDF and then send it to print, but change that to Microsoft Print to PDF feature to create another PDF.&nbsp; I was able to upload the file this way with my "new" pdf.&nbsp; Not exactly a fix for the issue, but seems to be a good work around.

I've been having the same problem today. Uploaded five PDFs (less than 200 KB each) no problem. But that's it. None of the PDFs I try to upload work as they all get stuck on the virus scanning phase.&nbsp; Is there any fix in the pipeline for this? What am I suppose to do in the meantime?

Still not working right.

As a reminder, please send in a bug report via the&nbsp; H elp Center &nbsp;as the forums are primarily for users helping users.&nbsp; With that said, Irondrake, did you try Kassket's workaround?

I'm having the same troubles now. I was able to upload several fillable .pdf files, but suddenly I'm stuck in the virus scan stage.

Something might have changed, but I don't think Roll20 supports fillable pdfs.

So it seems even after a few months PDF's still won't properly upload...... stuck on "Virus scanning"&nbsp;

Yeah, that's it, again. After months, PDF, regardless of browser used, do not load.&nbsp; Frustrating.&nbsp;

Doesn't work for me either.&nbsp; Stuck at virus scanning stage.&nbsp; I even let it run for 2 days straight and it never resolved itself.&nbsp;

I have the same problem too.

Gauss said: As a reminder, please send in a bug report via the&nbsp; H elp Center &nbsp;as the forums are primarily for users helping users.&nbsp; With that said, Irondrake, did you try Kassket's workaround? I just did. Waiting for an answer.

LordPotato said: Gauss said: As a reminder, please send in a bug report via the&nbsp; H elp Center &nbsp;as the forums are primarily for users helping users.&nbsp; With that said, Irondrake, did you try Kassket's workaround? I just did. Waiting for an answer. If you haven't gotten an answer in a timely manner please let us know. Also make sure you check your spam folder. :)

Alright, friends and foes.&nbsp; For those of us on Windows I have a tested, effective workaround:&nbsp; Convert your PDFs to JPEGs.&nbsp; Instructions found here:&nbsp; <a href="https://www.wikihow.com/Convert-PDF-to-JPEG" rel="nofollow">https://www.wikihow.com/Convert-PDF-to-JPEG</a> Program does what it says on the tin.&nbsp; Open the program, select your PDF, save it as a JPEG, and that JPEG uploads flawlessly as designed.&nbsp;&nbsp; To confirm I had the same problem as OP and the rest, I tried a ll steps as listed in various posts: varied browsers, extensions on/off, different PDFs of all sources and sizes, split PDFs, complete original PDFs, so long as they were under size cap.&nbsp; Not one single PDF I need to use worked, including renamed PDFs that I uploaded the exact same way from the same PC and folder that I successfully uploaded approximately 3 weeks ago into a different campaign. Personally, I blame Adobe, as it seems their mission in this world to be the Nestle/water analogue for file use/manipulation.&nbsp; This guess is based on nothing tangible, I just friggin' HATE adobe and PDFs.&nbsp; Anyway! Fight on, and good luck.

I have been experiencing this issue for a few days now. Bug Report just said "Yeah, I'll pass this along to someone" and closed the issue.

Teflon Trout!&nbsp; – Converting your pdfs to an image was the old behavior of Roll20. If the platform advertises uploading PDFs, it needs to make that function properly. Jpegs do not have copiable, searchable text, multiple pages or bookmarks. Aurion – The folks who operate the help center, if it is not a known and immediately addressable issue will indeed tell someone. That's the expected behavior. They have technical knowledge, but they are not devs themselves. Serious problems get reported and assigned to a dev or dev team. To the thread in general — There was a month gap in the middle of the thread. Was there a period where PDFs were uploading properly and then began to fail again, or has this been a problem all along? For those of you experiencing it, is it a universal problem, or only periodically or on certain PDFs? FWIW, I just tested and confirmed that this affect my uploads as well, though they have worked in the past. I'd like to direct dev attention to this thread, if possible, and get them useful information.

keithcurtis said: Teflon Trout!&nbsp; – Converting your pdfs to an image was the old behavior of Roll20. If the platform advertises uploading PDFs, it needs to make that function properly. Jpegs do not have copiable, searchable text, multiple pages or bookmarks. Keithcurtis - You are 100% correct, and I agree with you- which is why I said "workaround" instead of "fix" ; )&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; There was a period around 1 month to approximately 2 weeks ago where it was working perfectly.&nbsp; My own testing today has been a universal failure of uploading PDFs of any kind/age/source/style, INCLUDING PDFs that I have already uploaded successfully and used heavily within the past month. I f you absolutely have to have PDFs to share to your players though, I've had great success with shared Google Drive folders while the PDF upload function...doesn't.&nbsp; For example, I've shared the Players' Guide for my players &nbsp;kiddos so they can read it on their phones more easily when they're just hanging out even before this issue arose. BUT, I have a Very Important Session tomorrow, and had to have maps in place, which are in PDF format (running my kids' first actual AP session tomorrow.&nbsp; They curbstomped the Beginner's Box, and I promised them Session 1 of Rise of the Rune Lords, and I'll be in the Boneyard before I postpone it.

Katie Mae said: Hi everyone! Thank you for your reports, both here and in the Help Center. Our developers have put out a fix for this, so please try your uploads again! Before you do, please make sure to have deleted all previous attempts to upload the file from your account, or the upload won't go through. Let me know if you're still running into any difficulties, and thanks again for your patience!&nbsp; No, same thing. Cleared my cache again and deleting the old entries and I still can't upload anything, it gets stuck on Virus Scanning PDF. This is the first time I've tried to upload a pdf in months, so I'm not sure how long it's been like this for me. Edit: If it helps, when I try on Firefox and check the Console, I get a bunch of "Cookie "rack.session" has been rejected because it is already expired." &nbsp;Chrome isn't giving me anything new on the console when I start uploading. The "120248" errors keep coming up if I wait for it to scan viruses. Clicking the "pdfs" error gives me: {"pdfs":{"user_pdfs":[{"virus_check_passed":null,"virus_check_performed":null,"upload_failed":null},{"virus_check_passed":null,"virus_check_performed":null,"upload_failed":null},{"virus_check_passed":null,"virus_check_performed":null,"upload_failed":null},{"virus_check_passed":null,"virus_check_performed":null,"upload_failed":null}]}} Clicking the "120248" errors give me: {"virus_check_passed":null,"virus_check_performed":null,"upload_failed":null}

Yep, having the same issue since yesterday. Have deleted the files several times that fail, clear the cache, but it keeps failing.&nbsp;

It really feels like a server side thing, because it seems to gets stuck on the "Scanning for Viruses" step after it's done uploading.

I don't know if this will help anyone, but after repeatedly trying to upload the same pdf, it eventually worked for me. I only had the issue with bigger files, but both of them eventually worked after I kept trying. I did spent like 30 minutes uploading and deleting the second one though, it really should work more smoothly.

Mine let me upload today as well, do maybe they patched it?

Katie Mae said: Hi everyone! Thank you for your reports, both here and in the Help Center. Our developers have put out a fix for this, so please try your uploads again! Before you do, please make sure to have deleted all previous attempts to upload the file from your account, or the upload won't go through. Let me know if you're still running into any difficulties, and thanks again for your patience!&nbsp; Personally I am, though I can see some have had more luck than me these last few hours. Just adding my voice to let it be known it's not universally fixed yet.&nbsp;

I am just adding my voice to this thread to say I am also still (again?) having this problem. Uploading PDFs worked fine a week or two ago, and now I have the same issues as reported above. Roll20 sticks on "Virus Scanning PDF" and clicking on the PDF in the Journal tab just shows a "Still Processing" message. As some people have questioned, I'll also add that the PDFs are small in size, unencrypted, and not form-fillable. I've tried all of the various suggestions with no success.

HI ALL! I repost my thread here. Someone know how solve the problem of upload PDF rest in virus scanning on roll20? I've opened a request on roll20 suppport, i've done averyuthig they said, also a new fresh mozzilla installation with no configuration, extentions or others, but nothing works. They said me a new patch was installed to solve the problem, but nothing changes. After one week without a feedback from roll20 support (3 differente mail sended) i decide to ask in the forum if someone have a solution. thanks for all. Bye&nbsp; &nbsp;

Hi, Just bumping this- I've got a few small pdfs, 1-3 pages, and I can't seem to upload any of them because of the eternal virus scan. Months ago, I uploaded PDFs without issue, and was surprised to find this so difficult. I have tried all of the above things to resolve the issue, with no results. Any help or acknowledgement would be appreciated!

Hey all, having the same issue again with uploading PDFs. Continuing with a campaign that I had thought finished, but thankfully players have returned, so uploading some essential PDFs, but getting this perpetual spooling.&nbsp; Have deleted the files several times that fail, cleared the cache, but it keeps failing. &nbsp;Had this problem three weeks back and it seemed to sort itself out... but...

I was having this problem with one PDF. I saved it in PDF X-Change Editor as an optimized PDF and it saved without issue. The size of the PDF was smaller than other PDFs and the optimization cut it down even more. It still looks fine.&nbsp;

Had to cancel a game today due to this issue. Is it actually being looked at?

Still having this issue after trying daily for the last week. Tried all 3 of my browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Brave) and none work. Tried clearing cookies, didn't work. [edit] As per Isaac's suggestion I tried the&nbsp; PDF X-Change Editor as an optimized PDF and it worked. The free verson left stamps on my PDF pages but its welcome to get something uploaded, thank you Isaac!

As handy as that sounds with the PDF X-Change, we as uses of this VTT (and for those that are paying for it) shouldn't have to go down that route. In the session I had to cancel, I use a lot of PDFs as handouts for the players. I don't want stamps over them. But, saying that, maybe this will be something I need to do as a last resort, sadly...

I am experiencing this exact problem. I have successfully uploaded a PDF of the Cairn rulebook, but my attempts at doing the same for the game's character sheet have failed. The popup claims to be "virus scanning" the PDF (which I fail to see how exactly is necessary in any capacity). It isn't a huge issue, as I can simply send a link to the Cairn website to my players, but it'd be nice to upload the sheet directly to Roll20 so I am able to actually use the VTT as intended. Edit: I should also mention that I've tried deleting the PDF and reuploading it. Still doesn't work.

Still an issue (and looking at the first post: 9 months ago!). Have tried all the above suggestions. Paying for a service, not receiving. Really poor customer service here. What's going on? What work is happening to resolve this? I just want to hear solutions at this point, thank you.

Issue still going on

Just bumping this, issue still going on. I get the file uploaded and scanned, and when I open the pdf in Roll20 it is a blank single page. Tried multiple browsers and different sized pdfs.&nbsp; Even pdf's I uploaded a year ago that worked fine will no longer open.