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Import failed on a scanned PDF

Known limitImportUpdated 30 Sep 20261 min read

In short: A scanned PDF is a picture of each page, so there's no text for Rolebranch to read. Export the CV as a PDF from the original document, upload the DOCX, or import its text as a plain text file.

What you saw

The message import shows: Import failed, for John-Doe-CV.pdf, with no readable text. It suggests a DOCX or a text-based PDF.

Why it happens

Import reads the text inside PDF and Word files. A scanned PDF, or one made by printing a screenshot, has no text layer: each page is a picture. Rolebranch doesn't run text recognition on pictures yet, so there may be nothing to read.

John Doe
Exported PDFText you can select. Import reads it.
John Doe
Scanned PDFA picture of text. Nothing to read yet.

What to do

  1. Open the original in Word, Pages or Google Docs and export it as PDF, or upload the DOCX itself. Files up to 10 MB work.
  2. No original? Put the text in a plain text file (.txt) and import that, or run the scan through a text-recognition tool you trust and save the result as text. Headings like Experience and Education help import split it correctly.
  3. Check what import found on the review step. Nothing replaces your master CV until you save it.

If that doesn't work

Send us the file name and the message you saw. Import is free, so nothing was charged.

Ask Romy about thisSend a request
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