Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This generic error can result from several conditions during Document Matching template upload. Check the following in order:

Most Common Causes

1. File contains fewer than 10 words: Document Matching requires the template file to contain at least 10 words. Verify your file meets this requirement.
2. File is corrupted or unreadable: The upload may fail if the file is damaged, incomplete, or in an unexpected format. Re-save or re-create the file and try again.
3. File format not supported: Only DOC, DOCX, and PDF files are supported. Verify your file is in one of these formats (not DOCM, XLSM, or other variants).
4. PDF-specific issues:
   • Password-protected or encrypted PDFs cannot be uploaded
   • Scanned PDFs (image-only, no extractable text) may fail if fewer than 10 words can be extracted
   • Malformed or corrupted PDF files may be rejected
5. File size exceeds limit: Very large files (typically >100MB) may fail. Reduce file size and retry.
6. Browser or network issue:
   • Try uploading from a different browser or incognito/private mode
   • Check your network connectivity
   • Clear browser cache and cookies
7. Server-side issue: If all above checks pass, contact ManageEngine support with:
   • Browser console error details (press F12 → Console tab)
   • Network request details showing the upload failure (F12 → Network tab)
   • The file name, size, and format being uploaded

To Troubleshoot

1. Verify file content: Open the file and confirm it contains at least 10 words
2. Test with a simple file: Create a basic .docx file with 10+ words and attempt upload to isolate the issue
3. Check browser console: Open F12 (Developer Tools) → Console tab to see if there are error messages
4. Try different browser: Upload from Chrome, Firefox, or Edge to determine if the issue is browser-specific

Endpoint Central Document Matching accepts PDF files, but they must meet specific requirements.

PDF Requirements

• Minimum 10 words: The PDF must contain at least 10 extractable words
• Not password-protected: Password-protected or encrypted PDFs cannot be uploaded
• Extractable text: PDFs must have text that can be extracted (not image-only)
• Valid PDF format: The file must be a valid, non-corrupted PDF
• File size: Recommended maximum ~100MB (server configuration may vary)

Supported PDF Types

• Text-based PDFs: PDFs created from Word/Excel/PowerPoint or with embedded text
• PDFs with mixed content: Text + images are supported
• Scanned PDFs: Image-only PDFs without OCR are NOT supported. Scanned PDFs fail if they contain fewer than 10 extractable words

NOT Supported

• Password-protected PDFs (encrypted with a password)
• Digitally signed PDFs (may have extraction restrictions)
• Image-only/scanned PDFs without text extraction capability
• PDFs with restricted permissions (copy/extract disabled)

If Your PDF Upload Fails

For scanned PDFs: Apply OCR (Optical Character Recognition) using a tool like Adobe Acrobat or free online OCR services to convert the image to extractable text, then upload the OCR'd PDF.

For password-protected PDFs: Remove the password protection using a PDF editor, then upload.

For other issues: Verify the PDF is not corrupted by opening it in Adobe Reader or your browser. If it opens successfully with visible text, retry the upload.

Important Notes

• Endpoint Central does NOT perform OCR during upload. If you have a scanned PDF, you must apply OCR beforehand.
• The 10-word requirement applies to extractable text only. A PDF with 5 words + 5 images will fail.
• Match percentage in Document Matching is configured after upload and does not affect whether the upload succeeds.

If a Regex pattern fails to detect expected values while keyword matching succeeds, check the following:

Common Regex Issues

1. Word Boundary Mismatches:
   • Pattern: \b\d{3}-\d{6}\b (with word boundaries)
   • Problem: May not match if the pattern is adjacent to non-word characters or in specific contexts
   • Solution: Test without word boundaries: \d{3}-\d{6}
2. Pattern Syntax Differences:Endpoint Central uses standard Perl-compatible Regex (PCRE)
   • Verify syntax: \d (digit), \D (non-digit), \w (word char), \s (whitespace)
   • Character classes: [0-9] is equivalent to \d
   • Quantifiers: + (one or more), * (zero or more), {3} (exactly 3)
3. Anchors (^ and $):
   • ^pattern$ requires the entire line to match the pattern only
   • Solution: Remove anchors if the pattern appears anywhere in the file: pattern
4. Line-by-Line vs Full-Text Matching: Regex may process files line-by-line, not as continuous text
   • If your pattern spans multiple lines, it may not match
   • Solution: Test if the pattern appears on a single line in the file
5. Occurrence Count Too High:
   • If occurrence count is set to 5 but the pattern appears only 3 times, the file won't be classified as sensitive
   • Solution: Lower the occurrence count or verify the pattern actually matches multiple times
6. File Encoding Issues:
   • UTF-8, ASCII, or other encodings may affect pattern matching
   • Solution: Ensure the file is in UTF-8 or ASCII encoding
7. Regex Not Deployed or Inactive:
   • Verify the Regex rule is included in an active DLP policy
   • Confirm the policy is deployed to the target endpoint
   • Check policy refresh status (default 90 minutes)

Debugging Steps

1. Create a minimal test file: Save a file with ONLY the value you're trying to match (e.g., "123-456789" on a single line)
2. Deploy a DLP policy with your Regex rule to a test computer
3. Test the file on that computer to see if it's classified as sensitive
4. If it fails, try simplifying the regex:
   • Original: \b\d{3}-\d{6}\b
   • Simplified: \d{3}-\d{6}
   • More permissive: \d{3}\-\d{6} (escape the hyphen)
5. Check audit logs: Go to DLP → Reports → DLP Sensitive Events to see if the file was analyzed and which rule matched (or didn't match)
6. Test with Keyword Matching as reference: If keywords work but Regex doesn't, the issue is likely Regex syntax or pattern scope

Common Pattern Examples (Tested)

Important: If multiple Regex patterns fail to detect values that Keyword Matching catches, the issue may be in how the file is being scanned, the encoding, or the pattern context. Provide the failing patterns, sample test files, and audit logs to ManageEngine support for deeper investigation.