Uploading documents

When a firm you work with asks for a document, you can send a photo from your phone or a file from your computer. This article explains how, and what to do if something will not upload.

Send a document#

1. Find the question asking for the document. Just above the upload area, it lists the file types it accepts and the largest file size, for example "PDF, JPG, PNG, HEIC. Up to 20 MB." Where the firm added one, What a good one looks like shows a sample of the document they mean; tap it to see it full size.
2. Tap Choose a file (or Choose files if you can send more than one). You can tap anywhere in the upload area. On a computer, you can also drag files onto it.
3. Pick the file, or take a photo.
4. Wait until the file shows Uploaded, not sent yet. While it is sending, you will see Uploading… and a percentage. If you tap Continue before it finishes, the form waits for it and then moves on. The firm does not have it until you send the form.

Depending on how the firm has set things up, you may also see buttons to pick a file from a cloud service such as Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive.

If you send the wrong file, tap Remove next to it and send the right one. On a question that takes only one file, sending a new one replaces the old one.

Scan a document with your phone's camera#

On a phone or tablet, the first thing under a document question is a Take a photo button. It turns your camera into a scanner, so a paper document arrives looking like a scan rather than a photo of a desk.

1. Tap Take a photo. The first time, your phone asks whether the page may use the camera. Allow it.
2. Hold the phone over the page. An outline appears around the page once it is found. Hold still and the picture is taken for you. To take it yourself, tap the round button. Tap Auto to switch automatic pictures off or on.
3. For a document with several pages, turn to the next page and repeat. Each page is added to the scan.
4. Tap Review to check the pages. Each one has been cut out from its background, straightened and cleaned up, with shadows lifted.
5. Tap Use scan. The scan uploads like any other document.

While reviewing, you can:

• tap Retake to take the page you are looking at again
• tap Adjust corners and drag the four corners onto the page's edges, if part of the page was cut off or the desk shows
• tap Rotate to turn a page the right way up
• tap Delete to take a page out, or Add page to scan another
• choose Auto, Black & white or Original for how the pages are cleaned up. Auto keeps color, which suits IDs, checks and anything signed or stamped. Black & white suits pages of plain text. Original keeps the photo as taken, just straightened.

The pages of one scan are sent as a single PDF. If the question accepts only photos, each page is sent as its own picture instead.

Nothing leaves your phone until you tap Use scan. If you close the scanner first, the pages are thrown away.

If the camera cannot start because camera access is turned off, the scanner says where to turn it on for your phone and browser; do that and tap Try again. Or tap Take a photo instead to use your phone's own camera. The photo is still straightened and cleaned up.

At a computer, with the paper in your hand#

A computer's camera faces you, not the page, so use your phone for the picture and carry on at the computer.

1. Under the question, select Use your phone's camera. A square code appears.
2. Point your phone's camera at the code and tap the link it shows. The form opens on your phone at the same question.
3. Scan or photograph the document on your phone, as above.
4. Look back at the computer. Within a few seconds the document appears under the question, and you can carry on from there. If you answered other questions on your phone too, those answers appear at the computer as well.

The code is your private link to the form, so use it only with your own phone. If the question takes one document and you had already added one from the computer, both are kept; remove the one you do not want.

Taking a good photo#

Whether you scan or take a photo:

• Lay the page flat, in good light, on a surface darker than the paper.
• Get the whole page in the frame, edges included.
• Take one photo for each page, including the backs of cards and IDs if they ask for them.

Photos are made smaller on your phone before they upload, so you do not need to shrink them yourself.

If a note appears under your document#

After your document arrives, you may see a short note under it. For example:

• "We could not read this clearly." Take the photo again in better light, with the whole page in frame. Take a photo usually does better than a photo taken with the camera app.
• "This looks like … and we asked for …" Check you chose the right document. If you are sure it is right, you can leave it and send.

Any note still showing is listed again above the send button, with a link back to the document. These notes are only there to help. They do not stop you sending.

If a document will not upload#

"That file is larger than the … limit." Try a photo instead of a scan, or save the PDF at a smaller size. For a long document, send it in parts if the question allows more than one file.

"This question only accepts … files." The question accepts only certain file types. Save or export the document in one of the listed formats. A photo or a PDF usually works.

"We cannot accept … files." Some file types are never accepted, for safety reasons. These include programs, scripts, web pages, and Office files that contain macros. If you really need to send one, put it in a zip file first. For an Office document, saving it as a regular .docx or .xlsx file also works.

"That file is empty." The file has nothing in it, usually because it did not finish saving or downloading. Open it on your device to check, then choose it again.

"That file is named as a … but does not hold one." The file is called a PDF, or a picture, but is something else inside. Open it to check it is the document you meant, save it again as a PDF or a photo, and send that.

If a question takes one document and you add another from a different phone or computer, both are kept and the page says so. Press Remove beside the one you do not want.

"Not sent", with a Try again button. The upload was interrupted, often by a weak signal. Tap Try again. You do not need to find the file again.

A photo from an iPhone will not go through. iPhones save photos as HEIC by default. If the question does not accept HEIC, change your camera setting to "Most Compatible", or take a screenshot of the photo and upload that.

"You have already added … documents" or "Everything you send together can be … at most." There is a limit on how much one form can hold in total. Remove anything you do not need, or ask the firm for another way to send the rest.

Documents you do not have#

If you cannot find a document, you may see I do not have this below the question. Tap it, and the firm is told when you send the form. You can then send the rest of the form without it. If you will have it later, tap I’ll send it later: you can send the rest now, and the firm asks you for it when they need it. If you are not sure what they need, tap Ask about this. Your question goes to them straight away.

When the firm asks for a document again#

If the firm needs a document again, you will get a message with the same link. The document they need is marked Send again, with their note explaining why. Everything else you sent is kept. Documents the firm has already accepted show Received by the firm.

For how your documents are protected, see Is this link safe?.