Troubleshooting

When something in vivePDF does not work as expected, start by reading the message on screen: it says what went wrong and usually how to fix it. If the problem stays, the log folder, support bundle and bug report in the Help menu let you see what happened and pass it on to us.

First steps

• If a tool fails, try again with a copy of the file. Tools leave the original alone and write their result to a new file.
• If you see “The file is not a valid PDF or is damaged.”, try the Repair tool on it first. The Tools page lists every tool.
• If a feature is greyed out and hovering shows “Off while offline mode is on”, Offline mode is on. Turn it off in Settings › Web.
• Press Shift+F1 for the help topic of the screen you are on, or F1 for that screen’s shortcuts.

The SmartScreen warning at install

The installer carries no code signature, so the first time you run it Windows may show Windows protected your PC. Click More info, then Run anyway. See Installation for details.

“Cannot be opened” on a Mac

If macOS blocks vivePDF the first time, open System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to the vivePDF message. You only need this once; see Installation for details.

“LibreOffice is required for this conversion.”

Word, Excel and PowerPoint conversions use LibreOffice. If you see this message, open the Office converter part of Settings › Tools:

• On Windows, LibreOffice comes with the installer. Install from the app package sets it up without the internet (about 900 MB on disk).
• Without the package, Download and install downloads LibreOffice (about 350 MB).
• If LibreOffice is already on your computer, the status reads Found on this computer and that copy is used.

If LibreOffice is “still in use”, close any open LibreOffice windows and try again. A password-protected Office file needs its password removed first, in the application that created it.

“OCR language data not found.”

OCR needs a language pack for the language of the text. In Settings › Tools, find the language under OCR language packs and click Download; each language is downloaded once. Default OCR language in the same section sets the one chosen for you. Downloading needs Offline mode to be off. More on the OCR page.

If the app closes

If vivePDF closes unexpectedly, the next start shows “vivePDF closed unexpectedly last time — Report the crash”; Report opens a report straight away. Restore session on Home brings your open documents back. If you see “The PDF engine could not be started.”, close the app and open it again; if that does not help, save a support bundle.

The log folder

Help › Open log folder opens the folder with the log files. The log records what happened in technical terms and never the contents of your documents. Error lines may include file paths, with your home folder shown as ~. You can also reach it from Settings › Feedback › Log folder.

Support bundle

Help › Save support bundle… gathers the system details and recent logs into one zip file you can share.

The bundle is never sent anywhere by itself; you decide who gets it.

Report a bug

Help › Report a bug opens the Send a report window. Choose the type (Crash, Bug or Idea) and describe what happened. If you like, tick Include diagnostic information; What will be included then shows exactly what goes into the report.

• Paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V, or add a sample file with Add file…. Attachments only go into a package you save with Save as package (.zip); copying and GitHub never include them.
• Open on GitHub opens a prefilled issue in your browser. Copy to clipboard and Save report to file are there if you want to send the report another way.